This practitioner focused report of findings from a national research project on Sexual Assault Response Team functioning and effectiveness. The full version of the technical research report to the National Institute of Justice is available online.Scientific publications of the data in peer-reviewed journals with full methodological details are also available. Publish Date May 2015

The NSVRC creates tools that translate research to practice. This includes publications on Key Research Findings, Research Briefs and Literature Reviews. Browse our collection or suggest a topic for a future publication. Overviews Key Research Findings Research Briefs Literature Reviews Overviews National Research on Sexual Violence: A look to the Future provides a brief summary...

In early 2014, the Department of Defense (DoD) asked the RAND National Defense Research Institute to conduct an independent assessment of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination in the military. The resulting study, the RAND Military Workplace Study (RMWS), invited close to 560,000 active- and reserve-component service members to participate in a survey fielded...

  This fact sheet from the National Insitute of Justice outlines what research has told us about sexual assault kits: 1. No one knows the number of kits nationwide that have not been submitted for testing. 2. Little is known about the age of unsubmitted kits. 3. Submitting a kit to a crime lab does...

This report provides research results about Houston’s victim notification process. In Houston, victim notification involves reestablishing contact with victims whose cases are reopened for investigation as a result of a match in the law enforcement database Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), from victims’ recently tested sexual assault kits (SAKs).This action research assesses the implementation of...

This report includes research on creating victim notification protocols.  Six major themes emerged from survey respondents regarding the process of developing and implementing the Protocols. They include: 1)Strategic planning, 2) Organizational support, 3) Active partnerships, 4) Resources, 5) Outreach, and 6)Victim-centered approach. Of the six themes, researchers identified the victim-centered approach as significant to the...

This report describes research on victim and professional perspectives on the delivery of victim notification procedures, implementation of new victim notification processes, victim engagement within the criminal justice system, and recommendations for improvements. Victims and professionals made five recommendations. Law enforcement should not assume that a victim does or does not want to be notified....

A new report describes findings about unsubmitted sexual assault kits in Wayne County (Detroit), Michigan. A multidisciplinary team investigated the situation and found a number of effective and sustainable responses and ways to prevent the problem from recurring. The team found several underlying “risk factors” that contributed to the large quantity of unsubmitted SAKs in...

Increasingly, preventionists are working to prevent sexual violence at community and societal levels. Influencing public policies falls within these realms. This resource provides an overview of the key findings from Exploring alcohol policy approaches to prevent sexual violence perpetration, by Caroline Lippy and Sarah DeGue (2014). Potential prevention strategies are discussed, including policy advocacy to influence the...

NSVRC STATEMENT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE In response to WaPo Fact Checker: One rape is too many HARRISBURG, PA –  Sexual violence is complex and hard to talk about, but the fact is that sexual violence is an issue of epidemic proportions that impacts all of society. The February 12 column by Glenn Kessler in the...