Sexual Assault Response Team

A Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) is a coordinated, multidisciplinary community effort to respond to sexual assault victims' diverse postassault needs, such as injury treatment, forensic medical examinations, pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) screening, reporting to the police, and crisis intervention. SARTs bring together police officers, detectives, prosecutors, doctors, nurses, victim advocates, and crisis intervention counselors to work together to provide services for victims. SARTs are often based in a single location (e.g., hospital emergency department or clinic-like setting in a hospital or community center) so that victims receive one-stop care, which also prevents the retraumatizing experience of repeating the details of the assault to each new service provider.

In a typical SART protocol, if the victim first contacted the police, law enforcement would alert the medical team and then escort the victim to the hospital. If the victim presented first at the hospital, staff would notify law enforcement to come take the victim's statement. If the assault occurred within the past 72-96 hours, it is recommended that victims receive a forensic medical examination for evidence collection and documentation. Many SARTs work with Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners to perform the exams and provide pregnancy and STD treatment services. If the victim chooses to report the assault, a police officer and/or detective conducts the interview at the hospital or clinic site. In some SARTs, a prosecutor is also present for the initial victim interview. Throughout the entire process of the forensic medical examination and law enforcement interview, a victim advocate or other crisis intervention personnel is also present for support and advocacy intervention. Some SARTs also include mental health professionals, members of the clergy, and school officials. Most SARTs conduct regular case review meetings to track the status of cases to ensure that victims' needs are being met by the team.

Although there are approximately 800 SARTs in the United States and Canada, there has been limited empirical research evaluating the effectiveness of SARTs. It appears that SARTs increase the likelihood that victims receive comprehensive medical and crisis intervention services. This likelihood is significant because studies of victims' experiences seeking help in non-SART communities have found that most do not receive needed services such as emergency contraception, information on STDs, and community referrals. Some studies have found that SARTs significantly decrease victims' length of stay in hospital emergency departments and improve the quality of record documentation. SARTs increase interorganiza-tional collaboration and networking, but continued effort is needed for regular case review to ensure that cases do not slip by the team's attention. There are mixed results in the literature regarding whether SARTs increase sexual assault prosecution rates. Campbell and Ahrens found that victims in communities with coordinated response teams were significantly more likely to have their cases successfully prosecuted, but a more recent report by Wilson and Klein found that SART cases were no more likely to be prosecuted than non-SART cases. However, the [Page 658]coordinated team response may be helpful in increasing the likelihood that nonstranger assaults will be prosecuted.