REBECCA CAMPBELL: I'm an academic. I'm a college professor. I'm a teacher.
What we know about adult sexual assault prosecution...
When I do trainings with practitioners, I bring in research to really give them a comprehensive picture of what is the underlying research regarding trauma, and how can we assist victims of crime? We have our disciplinary silos– psychology, nursing, medicine, law enforcement, prosecution, victim advocacy, social work, and we all know things from our own disciplines, but we haven't really talked to each other.
I can't tell law enforcement what to do, I'm a psychologist. I can't tell a prosecutor what to do. But to start from that position of, "Here's useful information. Here is science– peer-reviewed science about the brain, about the body, about trauma, what it does. And here's how we see it manifest in sexual assault victims." And it's a game changer. It makes them think about this differently.
Over the course of my career I've been examining the impact of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs and Sexual Assault Response Teams. I've seen some significant changes in the community response to sexual assault, which take a multidisciplinary approach to address all of the needs of sexual assault victims– legal, medical, mental health and advocacy– and to really bring the community to work together to help rape victims.
One of the things that I talk about in my trainings is a quote from a survivor: "Every interaction with me is an opportunity to help or to hurt." Everybody can help. Within your role what small part do you have in promoting health and recovery? Make the choice to help.
