By Vin Gopal
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and we stand with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and many New Jersey organizations, dedicated professionals, and law enforcement agencies working to increase awareness, help victims, and prevent sexual assault.
The frequency of sexual assaults are disturbing: one in five women, and one in four men will be the target of sexual assault at some point in their lives. Studies estimate that one in three girls and one in four boys will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18. The majority of sexual assaults will be committed by someone the victim knows.
No one should have to live in fear of being sexually assaulted. We want to highlight some of our pending legislation to address and prevent sexual abuse, assault, and harassment.
Our current bills would require law enforcement officers to conduct danger assessments of domestic violence victims and provide assistance to high-risk victims. This legislation is cosponsored in the Assembly by my LD11 legislative partners Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul. The bill would require the officer to use the danger assessment to determine if the potential victim is in immediate need of services. The assessment would rely on an objective, standardized, and evidence-based domestic violence danger assessment method approved by the Attorney General, in consultation with the State’s Domestic Violence Fatality and Near Fatality Review Board.
The danger assessment would generate a score or rating that indicates an elevated risk the victim will suffer serious bodily injury or death as a result of a future act of domestic violence. If it indicates elevated risk, the officer would be required to notify the victim and, with the victim’s consent, provide immediate assistance through a domestic crisis team or other services available.
Another of our sponsored bills that was signed into law established a rape kit tracking system that allows the victim, law enforcement, healthcare facilities, and others that the state attorney general deems appropriate to track the rape kit through the chain of custody to the final disposition.
To prevent future sexual assaults, we also need to also track domestic violence offenders as they go through court-ordered counseling. Our legislation requires any court-ordered treatment programs to ensure accountability with assessments that identify the dynamics of domestic violence and escalating risk factors. The bill requires counseling programs to have a protocol that demonstrates the defendant is attending the programs and for reporting noncompliance promptly to the court for review.
In addition, Assemblywoman Peterpaul, who is a former municipal court judge in Long Branch and Asbury Park, has sponsored legislation to create a three-year pilot Integrated Domestic Violence (IDV) Court in the Superior Courts of four counties. The IDV Court is based on the idea of “one family, one judge” and would combine domestic violence cases, matrimonial cases, and related criminal matters. This approach would better enable the IDV Court to provide integrated services to families, enhance defendant accountability, and improve victim safety.
We can reduce sexual assaults but it takes everyone to stand up against these crimes. As the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, which started Sexual Assault Awareness Month 24 years ago, puts it: “Together We Act, United We Change.”
###
