’Believe them’

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and area advocates are reaching out to educate the public about the issue.

“It’s the month where sexual assault agencies really put emphasis on outreach and prevention,” Deanna Hansen, rural county services coordinator for the University of Iowa’s Rape Victim Advocacy Program, said. “We do it throughout the whole year, but it’s the month where we really hit it hard.”

While this year’s national theme is “We can build a safe online space,” locally, they are focused on education.

“For us it’s a little different,” Hansen said. “We just want to take some time to educate the community as to what sexual assault is and what it actually looks like.”

Washington County Attorney John Gish explained that the legal definition of sexual assault is “committing a sex act against another either by force or against their will or when the other has a mental defect or impairment or that other person is a child. A sex act is defined as the touching of another person’s genitalia, anus or breast with the genitalia, finger, mouth or other object.”

Hansen said that, in her role as a victim advocate, the definition is broader.

“The way we define it is stalking, teen dating violence, human trafficking or sexual harassment,” she said. “If anything happens that makes them feel uncomfortable, we’re going to be here for them. If something happens where they feel violated in any way, shape or form, we’re going to provide services for them.”

Gish said that most cases in Washington County involve victims who are children.

“Most cases involve a perpetrator who was related to the victim or somebody close to the victim,” he said. “It’s almost always a trusted person that is in that victim’s world.”

Because many of the cases involve child victims, investigations have to be handled delicately, using “trauma-informed” investigation techniques.

“Anyone under the age of 18 goes to a child protection center,” Hansen said. “They are interviewed by professionals. Law enforcement is there, and they’re watching it, but they’re not the ones asking the questions.”

She praised area investigators for their ability to conduct these investigations.

“I work in a lot of counties, and I’ve seen a lot of investigations go poorly,” Hansen said. “Here in Washington, that’s not the case. They are incredible at their job.”

Gish added, “Chad Ellis at the sheriff’s office and Brian Van Willigen at the Washington Police Department are very well trained on the use of the child protection center and very good at investigating and questioning suspects.”

Gish said that there are a lot of misconceptions in the public about prosecuting sexual assault.

“The first thing we like to talk about is that it’s not going to be like ’Law and Order,’” Gish said. “Very rarely do we have cases involving any kind of physical evidence.

“Most cases are delayed reported, meaning that a period of months or years have gone by since the actual abuse happened.”

One of the challenges he faces as a prosecutor is what he calls the “Law and Order/CSI effect.”

“When we do jury selection for a trial, we try to talk about that,” Gish said. “The purpose of ”Law and Order“ and ”CSI“ is to make money, so they can solve a crime in 30 minutes.

“For us, realistically, prosecuting a sex offense can take a year, two years, three years. It’s not a quick turnaround.”

Hansen said that she tries to explain that to the victims she works with.

“I tell them as soon as I meet them that a lot of stuff is going to go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, then after that, you’re not going to hear anything,” Hansen said. “It could be months; it could be years. I do a lot of counseling with them and meet with them as much as I can.”

Also, sexual assault cases often have little or no physical evidence, making convictions difficult.

“The unfortunate truth is that, historically, given that we know most cases do not include physical evidence and include delayed reporting, jurors are unlikely to find a defendant guilty on the victim’s testimony alone,” Gish said. “I believe them. Law enforcement believes them, but I can’t always get 12 people to believe them.”

Another misconception involves the use of weapons in a sexual assault.

“Weapons like knives and firearms are almost never used,” Gish said. “It’s going to be coercion; it’s going to be threats; it’s going to be alcohol, drugs or naivete that usually results in somebody being victimized.”

Hansen said that nationwide statistics show that only 3 percent of the cases involve any kind of weapon or physical pressure being used.

“The No. 1 weapon is trust,” Hansen said. “They’re going to use trust. They may have been grooming them, then they’re going to exploit that. The second highest is drugs and alcohol.”

Gish said that he currently has cases where the victim was intoxicated at the time of the assault.

“That’s where the criminal code comes into play and discusses the impairment of the victim,” Gish said. “The argument of the state is that person was not in a state of mind where they could have granted consent for the sex act.”

Gish explained that reaction of victims is not limited to “fight or flight.”

“Our physiological reactions to something aren’t just fight or flight. It’s also freeze,” he said. “What happens in a lot of cases is our victims, confused and surprised by what is happening, freeze. They do not have the ability to react.

“Asking the victim if they say, ‘No,’ completely ignores the natural human reaction to a sexual assault.”

Both Gish and Hansen said that support is imperative to victims of sexual assault.

“My message is that when a person is the victim of sexual assault, they are statistically more likely to report the sexual assault when they have supportive caregivers and people around them in the community that believe them,” Gish said. “I encourage all the survivors in Washington County who have not reported to consider reporting.”

Hansen said that listening to a victim and believing them helps give them back power that was taken away by the assault.

“When someone discloses something like that to you, believe them,” Hansen said. “You’re going to have your own feelings and reactions, but people don’t lie about this kind of stuff. Ninety-eight percent of the time when someone tells you something, it’s going to be true.

“Believe them, provide support and validate their experience.”