Sexual Assault

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) calls attention to the fact that sexual violence is widespread and impacts every person in the community. SAAM aims to raise public awareness about sexual violence and educate communities on how to prevent it.

Sexual violence undermines communities. Over half of women and almost 1 in 3 men have experienced sexual violence during their lifetimes. Stopping sexual abuse, assault, and harassment before it happens requires communities to work together to support healthy, safe, and respectful behaviors and environments. Community-level prevention benefits everyone in the community. In fact, everyone has a role in preventing sexual violence to help build a community that is safer, inclusive, and equitable.

Learn more about domestic and sexual assault prevention, as well as opportunities to support survivors such as volunteering for ASP’s 24-hour Helpline, 970-945-4439.

Do you want to involve law enforcement and participate in a potential criminal investigation?

No, there are 2 options:

1. A Medical Report is when you choose to have a SANE completed, but choose to not participate in the criminal justice process. The evidence is collected and, along with your identifying information, is released to law enforcement. You can choose to have the evidence tested or not, though you will need to be in contact with law enforcement if you choose to have it tested. The evidence collection portion of the exam will be billed to Colorado Department of Criminal Justice. You may choose at a later date to make a law enforcement report by contacting the local law enforcement agency. You can request a SANE locally by calling Garfield County Dispatch at 970-625-8095 and request a call back from the “on call nurse”.
2. An Anonymous Report is when you choose to have a SANE completed and choose to not participate in the criminal justice process. The evidence is collected and released to law enforcement without your identifying information, law enforcement is only storing the evidence, it cannot be tested. The evidence collection portion of the exam will be billed to Colorado Department of Criminal Justice. You may choose at a later date to make a law enforcement report by contacting the local law enforcement agency. You can request a SANE locally by calling Garfield County Dispatch at 970-625-8095 and request a call back from the “on call nurse”.

Did you Know?

Garfield County

Garfield County handles approximately 400 domestic violence arrests per year.

Colorado

• 8% of Colorado women and 30.5% of Colorado men experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence and/or intimate partner stalking in their lives.
• 32 Coloradans were killed by former or current intimate partners in 2018; almost 2/3 of those were killed using firearms.
• 15% of homicides in Colorado were committed by intimate partners.

Nationally

• In the United States, more than 10 million adults experience domestic violence annually. (4)
• If each of these adults experienced only once incidence of violence, an adult in the US would experience violence every three seconds. However, because domestic violence is a pattern, many experience repeated acts of abuse annually, so an incident of abuse happens far more frequently than every three seconds.
• 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience severe physical violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime. (5)
• Intimate partner violence is most common against women between the ages of 18-24.11
• 19% of intimate partner violence involves a weapon. (6)
• Smith, S.G., Chen, J., Basile, K.C., Gilbert, L.K., Merrick, M.T., Patel, N., Walling, M., & Jain, A. (2017). The national intimate partner and sexual violence survey (NISVS): 2010-2012 state report. Atlanta: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/NISVS-StateReportBook.pdf.
• Colorado Office of the Attorney General (2019). Colorado domestic violence fatality review board 2nd annual report. Denver. Retrieved from https://coag.gov/app/uploads/2020/01/CDVFRB-2019-Annual-Report_202001.pdf.
• Colorado State Government (2020). Violent crime, 2019. Retrieved from https://coloradocrimestats.state.co.us/tops/report/violent-crimes/colorado/2019
• Black, M.C., Basile, K.C., Breiding, M.J., Smith, S.G., Walters, M.L., Merrick, M.T., Chen, J. & Stevens, M. (2011). The national intimate partner and sexual violence survey: 2010 summary report. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf.
• Smith, S.G., Zhang, X., Basile, K.C., Merrick, M.T., Wang, J., Kresnow, M. & Chen, J. (2018). The national intimate partner and sexual violence survey: 2015 data brief – updated release. Atlanta: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/2015data-brief508.pdf.
• Morgan, R.E., & Oudekerk, B.A. (2019). Criminal victimization, 2018. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv18.pdf

For more Statistics:

Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault https://www.ccasa.org/

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence https://ncadv.org/

Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network https://rainn.org/

Violence Free Colorado https://www.violencefreecolorado.org/