On the Rape Prevention and Education Grant Program, Centers for Disease Control, Department of Health and Human Services

Testimony of Susan Herman, Executive Director, National Center for Victims of Crime

Submitted to the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
May 14, 2003

The National Center for Victims of Crime submits this testimony to urge members of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education to fully fund the Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) Grant program at $80 million dollars. Rape Crisis Centers rely on this money to educate their communities about prevention of sexual abuse and assault. A significant portion of rape crisis centers’ resources is geared towards providing crisis services to those who are victims of sexual violence. These services are absolutely critical. However, sexual assault advocates know that education and prevention are key to making inroads against this terrible crime. Rape Prevention and Education Grant funds are the foundation for this crucial effort.

The incidence of sexual assault in this country remains unacceptably high. In 2001, the National Crime Victimization Survey estimated that 248,000 people were raped or sexually assaulted.1 Young adults and teens are particularly vulnerable. Approximately 44% of rape victims are under age eighteen; fifteen percent are under age twelve.2 In 2001, approximately one in ten men were victims of sexual assault.3

Sexual assault exacts a terrible cost on individual victims, their families, and our nation. The trauma of sexual assault has been clearly linked to problems such as increased drug and alcohol use, domestic violence, depression, suicide, and teenage pregnancy.4 Victims face loss of economic productivity through unemployment, underemployment, and absence from work. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 21 % of victims who have been raped by an intimate partner report losing time from work as a result of their victimization.5 Without education and prevention activities, women and men, girls and boys, remain vulnerable to sexual assault and unaware of the services that can help them recover if they become victims.

As the nation’s leading resource and advocacy organization for victims of crime, the National Center works with hundreds of rape crisis centers and state sexual assault coalitions all over the country. We recently asked those programs about their use of Rape Prevention and Education funds. From their experience, it is clear how important this funding is to creating and carrying out programs aimed at preventing and responding sexual violence.

Purposes of the Rape Prevention and Education Grant program

Rape Prevention and Education money can be used for many different activities. Based on information collected from grantees by the Centers for Disease Control, 34 % of the RPE dollars in the last funding cycle were used for educational seminars. A large number of these workshops were targeted to reach students (ranging from middle school to college), men, people with disabilities, Hispanics and Latinos, African Americans, and other traditionally underserved populations. Workshop topics included the connection between alcohol and rape, drug-facilitated rape, dating violence, healthy relationships, and risk reduction. An additional sixteen percent of RPE funds were used specifically for education and training programs for students and campus personnel to reduce the incidence of sexual assault at colleges and universities. Many grantees used this funding for training professionals (e.g. teachers, social services staff, health, law enforcement, and mental health professionals) on the impact of rape, rape prevention, dating violence, and legal policy information. Crisis hotlines and preparation of informational material for victims are also funded by the Rape Prevention and Education Grant program. Through RPE grantees, crisis intervention and prevention services were made available to 501,122 individuals across the country.

In addition, this funding supports the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, a program of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. The Resource Center provides information, materials, research data, and resources on sexual violence to policymakers, federal and state agencies, college campuses, state, territory and tribal anti-sexual assault coalitions, the media and the public. The NSVRC provides much-needed coordination for professionals working at the state and local level to prevent and address sexual violence.

The importance of rape education

Rape prevention and education efforts are key to ending sexual violence by changing attitudes about rape and ending the isolation of victims. Perpetrators of sexual assault rely on the stigma and myth that surround rape to keep victims silent. In fact, in 2001, only 39% of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law enforcement officials — about one in every three.6

There are many reasons why so few rape victims report their assaults to police. Because societal misconceptions about sexual assault persist, victims often blame themselves for the assault or fear that others will judge them. Even well-meaning family members and friends may ask a victim what they were doing, what they were wearing, how much they had to drink, and why they were out alone. Many sexual assault victims may feel that even if they do come forward, no one will understand their needs or be able to assist them.

Only through education can we change public perception that allows sexual violence to fester. The Rape Prevention and Education Grant program represents the best opportunity, through local community-based programs, to make this shift.

The link between education and prevention

Education about rape can prevent rape. We know that targeted awareness and education campaigns can reach the public and make a difference. Two such efforts are the campaigns to stop smoking and to end drunk driving. As young people become aware of the frequency of acquaintance rape, they can and do broaden their efforts to protect themselves from merely locking doors against strangers to taking precautions with those they know. Education is also key to reducing drug-facilitated sexual assault. As detection and prosecution remain difficult, the best means to reduce such crimes is prevention through education. Through education and public awareness efforts, young people can learn to reduce their risk and understand the warning signs that they or a friend may have ingested Rohypnol, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), or other drugs commonly used to facilitate sexual assault.

A Gainesville, Georgia, rape crisis center reported to us, "We see dramatic positive changes in attitudes about rape from the 2800 middle and high school students we reach each year with our Date Rape and Safe Relationships curriculums. We could reach three to four thousand more student per year with added funding since our curriculums have long been approved by the school systems." An El Paso, Texas, program reported great success with the single sex workshops they had held for teens between the ages of 12 to 18. "The kids, parents, and school counselors loved them!" The program is unable to continue those workshops because of a lack of funding.

The link between outreach and reporting

Rape crisis centers around the country report that their public awareness and education activities often encourage victims who have never previously disclosed their victimization to come forward to seek help. Many rape crisis programs reported that up to a third of their clients come to them for counseling because they heard about the program at a workshop or presentation. "Clients actually told us that they remembered our presence in the classroom and contacted us for help," noted a spokesperson from the Ridgeway, Pennsylvania center.

A Lowell, Massachusetts, program described the importance of the staff’s regular presence in the schools. "Every year we get dozens of disclosures in the schools from everything from child abuse and neglect to gang rape. We serve every school in our service area, every year. Therefore teachers, guidance counselors and principals know us and trust us." Without this funding, the program’s presence in the schools is in jeopardy.

Rape education also helps victims better recognize sexual assault as a crime. A program in Mobile, Alabama, reported that "since we have begun a huge presentation push in the schools, there has been an increase in the numbers of middle and high school youth who report rape and sexual abuse." A Canton, New York, program observed that "early education makes it much easier for children to be able to tell if abuse happens to them." Without this education, school children will no longer understand what happened to them.

What’s more, rape prevention and education grants provide the community outreach that lets victims – and the friends and family members of victims – know about the services available in their community. A recent study by the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) found that more than half of the respondents were unaware of the rape crisis services available in their community. TAASA responded and created a statewide campaign to advertise the support services available to victims at rape crisis centers around the state. Increased Rape Prevention and Education funding could support such campaigns in every state.

Rape Prevention and Education Funding must be increased

Program after program reported to the National Center that due to lack of funds, their outreach efforts are being cut, staff and volunteers are taxed to the limit, they are out of printed materials, and that without full funding they cannot make more progress against sexual assault. As one program in Oregon told us, "Victim advocacy is critical, but without prevention and education, it’s a bandaid on a gaping wound."

Every program described isolated populations that are in desperate need of targeted outreach; such populations include:

• the developmentally-disabled in North Carolina
• gay/lesbian/bi-sexual and transgendered people in Michigan and Wisconsin
• the homeless in Boston
• the deaf community in Connecticut
• the mentally ill in Missouri
• home-bound elderly and nursing home residents in Illinois
• Native American tribes in California and Oregon
• the Muslim community in Virginia
• the Amish community in Pennsylvania
• rural communities in Montana and North Dakota and
• immigrant communities in Georgia.

Many programs, including those in Georgia, Massachusetts, and Virginia, also reported that they were unable to meet the requests by law enforcement agencies for training simply because staff were already stretched to the limit. Others, including programs in New Jersey and West Virginia, described a need to train hospital staff.

In a recent e-mail, a victim services center in rural Ohio told us of the importance of the Rape Prevention and Education Funding. Program staff have been able to speak in schools in the five surrounding counties about sexual assault, date rape, date rape drugs, and personal safety. "These children would not have heard the critical information to keep themselves safe and, if assaulted, know where to get help if funds were not made available through the Federal government."

As you know, the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (VAWA II) increased the authorization for this important program to $80 million.7 However, funding for the past several years has remained at approximately $44 million.

When Congress increased the authorization for the Rape Prevention and Education Grant program as part of VAWA II, it recognized the importance of this program in reducing sexual victimization. The National Center calls on Congress to honor its commitment to ending rape by providing full funding for the Rape Prevention and Education Grant Program for FY 2004.