Adolescent sexual assault victims'' experiences with SANE-SARTs and the criminal justice system

This study uses three approaches to answer three questions related to adolescents and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) and Sexual Assault Response Teams (SART). The first is a quantitative quasi-experimental design that examines eight years of reporting and prosecution data in two counties that differ in terms of how their SANE programs function within multidisciplinary SART teams. The second study involves qualitative interviews with adolescent victims who received SANE-SART services to learn how these experiences influenced their participation in prosecution. The third study is an online study of two cohorts of key informant adolescents to determine why teen victims do not disclose and what more SANE-SARTs can do to demonstrate to teens that they provide a safe avenue for assistance. The questions the study seeks to answer: 1) Which cases make it through the system and why? 2) What role do SANE-SARTs play in encouraging victims to participate in prosecution? 3) What are teen victim's concerns about seeking formal help in the first place? This study will assist in filling a gap in the literature because while research has shown that SANE-SART programs can be helpful throughout reporting and prosecution this topic has not been studied with adolescents.

ca/ncf