Addressing sexual assault is one of the greatest public health and social justice imperatives for our society. In 2015, IDVSA reported that 6.3 million Texans (33.2 percent) experienced some form of sexual assault in their lifetime–that is two in five women and one in five men. Texas has an annual incident rate of 413,000 sexual assaults, of which only 9.2 percent were reported to law enforcement.
Victim-centered, trauma-informed practices are required to assist victim-service providers to better respond to these crimes. The Compendium of Resources for Sexual Assault (CORSA) is designed to provide evidence-based victim-centered, trauma-informed training, strategies, and tools to strengthen the multidisciplinary response to sexually violent crimes and engage victims across the continuum of care, including community-based services and criminal justice and legal systems.
CORSA will strengthen the availability and specificity of tools that address sexual assault in ways that will improve responses to victims. Three objectives to achieve this goal include: 1) The compendium, including four videos; 2) Platform and dissemination plan, and 3) The evaluation of the first two objectives will include an assessment of the use, efficacy, and replication of CORSA. The four videos will be evidence-based and the expected audience will include judges, members of the grand jury, prosecutors, law enforcement, and victim services providers. These educational training tools will augment the understanding of criminal justice and victim-services professionals and grand jury members about and sexual-assault interventions and services to sexual-assault survivors. Armed with trauma-informed, victim-centered knowledge, cultural change is possible. This shift will safeguard victims and serve as a catalyst for sensitive, trauma-informed care and treatment by informed professionals.