GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — April 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The annual campaign is designed to stop sexual violence and support survivors.
According to leading experts, including The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), nearly 1 in 5 American women has been sexually assaulted or has survived an attempted rape. In fact, an American is sexually assaulted every 73 seconds. Of those individuals, who are mostly women, 1 in 3 was raped between the ages of 11 and 17. Those numbers are somewhat flawed, since so many sexual assaults go unreported.
Patti Haist is the director of crisis intervention services at the YWCA, West Central Michigan in Grand Rapids. It provides crisis intervention services to victims of domestic and sexual violence.
"We offer medical forensic examinations, through our nurse examiner program, to victims of sexual assault. And that's also offered on a 24-hour a day basis. Those exams are free and we provide them to children and adults," she says.
"With our nurse examiner program, in a typical year, we see approximately 350 victims of sexual assault and provide the medical forensic examinations. They've done some sexual assaults and provide that medical forensic examination. One interesting thing that we have noticed in the last two quarters is that we have had almost as many minors who have received the exams as we have had adults. That has never been the case in all the years that we've been doing this and we're going on 25 years this fall."
FBI crime data shows Michigan as having the 4th highest sexual assault rate in the country. Haist says there are so many layers to preventing sexual assault, but says it starts with understanding the nature of the crime.
"And how we as a society look at it. People need to understand that, you know, it's important to have boundaries. It's important to obtain consent, that is given freely. And understand not to coerce someone into something that they don't feel like they're voluntarily consenting to. And so," she said. "And so much of it has to do with parents teaching those kinds of concepts to their children and their teenagers, who are going to be entering the dating world."
Haist says a great number of sexual assaults happen in dating situations or when victims are with acquaintances they feel comfortable around.
"Let's say it's a situation where a college student goes to a bar with friends and there's a guy there that's hanging around and knows one of the friends, but he is essentially a stranger to her," Haist explains. "And so let's say he offers her a ride home. Just by being associated with her friends, she makes may make an assumption that, okay, he's a safe person. But then, you know, he takes her home and pushes his way into her dorm room or her apartment and and assaults her. We see that kind of thing happening a lot."
Haist says, too often, alcohol consumption plays a role in sexual assaults.
"So, you know, this is not to place blame on the victim, but it certainly creates an added vulnerability," she says. "But sexual assault is never the victim's fault."
The YWCA's 24 hour helpline number is (616) 454-9922 or (616) 454-YWCA. Other resources in West Michigan can be found below.
- Safe Haven Ministries (616) 452-6664.
- The Child Advocacy Center of Kent County, for people under 18 - (616) 336-5160.
- Protect Young Eyes, which is a local resource for online safety.
Related video:
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.