After a sexual assault, a survivor may encounter multiple systems, including the following: criminal justice, medical, and educational. Each of these systems have their own complex rules and terminology that can make navigating them challenging for survivors. It is also important to note that some survivors – particularly those from marginalized communities - may be reluctant to engage with systems.
WCASA supports both local and statewide efforts to improve how these systems respond to sexual assault survivors. Some hallmarks of system reform include: implementing trauma-informed responses to survivor, increasing survivor access to information (including confidential community-based advocacy services), and placing survivor interests at the center of system responses while also enhancing efforts to hold offenders accountable.