be alert, be aware!

what a rape vicitim should do within the first 24 hours of being raped.

 abuse

If you are raped...

Survivors of date rape and other forms of sexual assault often experience a spectrum of feelings and reactions, including confusion, denial, anger, shock, numbness, fear, self-blame, embarrassment, sadness, and helplessness. It is common for survivors to have:

• feelings of guilt and responsibility;
• concerns about their ability to make good judgments about people;
• difficulty trusting themselves and others;
• feelings of being violated, conned, cheated, and/or manipulated;
• difficulty accepting what happened as rape.

Survivors of child sexual abuse and incest often begin to remember their experience or deal with the emotions associated with their childhood experience for the first time while in college. This can be a scary and difficult time and create a great deal of turmoil in the survivors' life, even though the assault(s) happened years before.

IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT! Sexual Assault is a crime of power and control. Noone can force a perpetrator to rape them. The perpetrator always has other options and choices in the situation. And you are not responsible for the other person assaulting you even if you were drinking, on a date with the person, dressed provocatively, or even if you engaged in some sexual acts or foreplay with the person beforehand. Your consent is required for a mutual, consenting sexual interaction and without your consent it is rape. If you are too inebriated or incapacitated to give consent, then it is rape.

Caring For Yourself / Safety Checklist...Your options in the first 24 hours

If you have been sexually assaulted within the last 72 hours, you have some medical and legal options to consider which are time-limited. There are other medical, legal, and emotional resources that are available to you regardless of when your sexual assault occurred. The following are some options to consider for your own safety.

Medical Options:

• INJURY: Within 72 hours of the sexual assault, you may have a medical need to be seen by a doctor. If the assault was more physically violent in nature, there may be internal tearing treatable by a doctor.
• SEXUALLY-TRANSMITTED DISEASES: It is possible to contract a sexually transmitted disease during a sexual assault. It is recommended that you seek examination, testing, and preventative medicine for STDs if you have been assaulted. It is important that you be seen by a doctor as soon as possible, but if you do not get treated immediately, it is still worthwhile to make an appointment. There are nurse practitioners and/or gynecologists who can treat you at the Student Health Service (for U of D students), Planned Parenthood, or ChristianaCare Medical Center.
• PREGNANCY: Pregnancy is another concern if you are female. You may receive pregnancy testing via any of the health agencies listed above. Christiana Care Medical Center, Planned Parenthood, and UD's Student Health Service -- Women's Health Clinic all offer the morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy. If you wish to use this resource, it is preferred that you be treated within 72 hours after the assault. However, the "Plan B" emergency contraceptive can now be taken up to 5 days after unprotected sex or sexual assault. Read more about emergency contraception provided at the Women's Health Clinic at UD's Student Health Service.
• EVIDENCE COLLECTION: The ChristianaCare Medical Center has a staff of forensic nurses who can provide and administer a rape evidence collection kit to use in conjunction with pressing legal charges against the assailant (see Legal Options below). Forensic nurses, formerly known as Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (S.A.N.E.), are on staff 24 hours/day and there is a separate examination room from the rest of the ER. If you go to the emergency room, let the triage desk know that you have been assaulted and would like to be seen by the SANE/forensic nurse. This will insure that you do not have to wait for more than an hour, typically even less time, to be seen and examined. If you are unsure whether or not you wish to press charges, Christiana ER has the ability to store the evidence collected for up to 14 days to allow victims more time to decide whether or not they want to make a police report and have a criminal investigation conducted. It is critical to collect evidence as soon as possible after the sexual assault. Evidence collection is most successful within the first 24 hours of the assault, and it helps if you do not shower prior to examination. The maximum amount of time within which the exam can be taken is 72 hours.
• TRANSPORTATION: University of Delaware Police, 831-2222, will provide a transport to the Student Health Service or to the Christiana Hospital for University students, whether the assault happened on campus or in Newark. An unmarked car can be requested for the transport.
• POLICE REPORTING: The University Police will not file a report if the survivor does not wish to provide information or press legal charges. An alternative they offer is to take a report for informational purposes without pressing charges. This option is helpful if the survivor needs time to decide what she wants to do, yet allow the information to be collected while it is fresh in the victim's mind. In any case, the officer will try to help the survivor get to the resources necessary for medical and emotional assistance. It is a common misperception that University police will press charges against the victim for underage drinking if the victim was intoxicated at the time of the assault. S.O.S. has been assured by University Police that they will not prosecute victims for underage drinking, and are more concerned about addressing the more severe crime of sexual assault. Newark Police have made a similar statement to S.O.S.
• TESTING FOR DATE RAPE DRUGS: Christiana Care Medical Center can send samples for testing to see if date rape drugs, such as GHB, Rohypnol, & Ketamine, are present in the victim's body. S.O.S. is currently investigating additonal area laboratories and medical resources that are able to test urine and/or blood to verify if one of these date rape drugs have been introduced into your system. This option is only available to you in the first hours after an assault. It is critical to collect the first urine in a clean, dry container after waking up. If you collect your own urine sample, refrigerate or freeze it. Urine kept in this way can be tested for Rohypnol days and even weeks after collection. For more information, visit SOS' page about Date Rape Drugs.

Support & Counseling Services Options:

• On-campus support is available by phone 24 hours/day from trained S.O.S. volunteers. To contact S.O.S., call the Health Center at 831-2226. Structured survivor discussion groups are also offered by S.O.S. each semester. To get involved with the next group running, contact Angela Seguin at 831-3465.
• Ongoing counseling is available at the Center for Counseling and Student Development which is located above the bookstore in the Perkins Student Center. To make an appointment with an intake counselor, call the Counseling Center at 831-2141.
• If you are struggling with sexual abuse that occurred during childhood, you may wish to contact SOAR, Survivors Of Abuse in Recovery, at 655-3953. SOAR offers both individual and group counseling and functions on a sliding-fee scale for those without insurance. S.O.S. can also make referrals to some counselors in private practice who specialize in this topic. Call the non-emergency S.O.S. number for a referral 831-3465.
• Rape Crisis CONTACT Delaware offers rape crisis services similar to those provided by S.O.S. for all of New Castle County. They run regular groups in Wilmington and Newark areas.
• RAINN, Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, offers a national hotline.
• Often it helps to tell someone you trust such as a close and trusted friend, parent, or other family member about the assault. Having a system of support is very important for survivors after a sexual assault.
  

Housing Options:

• If you are a resident of University Residence Halls, and your assailant lives nearby, the staff in your hall may be able to facilitate an expedient move for your safety and wellbeing. See your Resident Assistant and/or Hall Director for more information about your options. They may also be able to assist you in reaching some of the other resources mentioned in this website.
  

University Judicial System Options:

• If your assault occurred on campus and/or at least one person involved is a University student, you may choose to pursue the matter through the University Judicial System. In the residence hall, your Resident Assistant or Hall Director may complete an Incident Report and/or help you to contact a University of Delaware Police officer, 831-2222. If you contact University Police, you may request a female officer trained to work with sexual assault; however, based upon staffing and scheduling of women officers, they may not be able to assure you that a woman will respond. The University Police can send a Victim Services Officer to assist you and that officer would become your advocate and continue providing you support throughout the rest of the legal and/or judicial processes. Charges would then be brought against the alleged assailant via the Judicial office, a branch of the Dean of Students' office. You can expect to be asked to speak at a University Hearing as a witness. You are allowed to have a friend or advocate present with you during the hearing. An SOS member, close friend, Resident Assistant, Victim Services Officer, faculty member, or anyone you trust to be there for you are possible choices for you to consider taking with you. When filing a report with University Police, you may also wish to pursue the matter through the State of Delaware legal system. Read on to learn more about that process.
• If your assault occurred off campus in Newark and you wish to report it, you may contact the Newark Police Department by dialing 911. The University Police only have jurisdiction for those crimes committed on University of Delaware property. Whether reporting with University of Delaware Police or Newark Police, you will have to decide whether or not you wish to press charges legally. See below.

Legal Options:

• If you are at all considering filing a report and pressing charges against your assailant, time is of more serious concern with respect to remembering the details of what happened and evidence collection. We recommend that you find a friend or advocate to assist you through this process. An S.O.S. member, Victim Services Officer with U of D Police, or a volunteer with Rape Crisis CONTACT Delaware may be able to serve as a supportive advocate for you. When pressing charges, the state will usually not prosecute if you do not wish to be part of the case as a witness because it is very difficult for the state to win such a case. The legal process can be quite difficult and scary for the survivor, possibly just as traumatic as the assault. However, some survivors experience a sense of empowerment from the legal process in standing up for themselves and in having the state hold the person accountable for their actions. Only you can make the decision about whether or not pressing charges is right for you, but an SOS volunteer would be able to listen and discuss this issue if you wish to contact us via the 24-hour hotline, 831-2226.
• For more information about the state's Victim Advocacy Program as well as the legal process, visit the Delaware Attorney General's Home Page. The Attorney General's website also has a page specifically focussed on Victim's Rights and Victim's Assistance programs in the state of Delaware. If the crime did not occur in Delaware, you may want to check out your home state's Attorney General's Office for information accurate to your situation. The National Center for Victims of Crime also has good info on Victim's Rights.
• For more information about the Criminal Justice system in Delaware, see the Delaware Criminal Justice Council.

Financial Options:

• Victims who file a police report (whether the case is pursued by the Attorney General's Office or not) are eligible to have medical, counseling, lost pay from days off, and a list of other expenses paid for by the Violent Crimes Compensation Board. The S.O.S. Coordinator has copies of these appropriate forms in her office at Wellspring and can assist you with this process.

If you are a male survivor of sexual assault and would like more information about rape of men, please see our page "For Male Survivors".

If you are at all considering filing a report and pressing charges against your assailant, time is of more serious concern with respect to remembering the details of what happened and evidence collection. We recommend that you find a friend or call an S.O.S. advocate to assist you through this process. An S.O.S. member, Victim Services Officer with U of D Police, or a volunteer with Rape Crisis CONTACT could serve as your advocate. Services provided by S.O.S. & Rape Crisis CONTACT Delaware are strictly confidential and anonymous.

http://www.udel.edu/wellspring/SOS/youraped.htm

General Online Resources:
Rape Trauma Syndrome

Office of Women's Affairs - U of D

RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) Training Program

Sttar Center

Women Organized Against Rape (WOAR)

this if from u of delaware but still news  for ever women....if you are raped...first remember you want to live....never let a man force you into a car...odds are once you get in that car you wont be found for a long time...best to take your chances on the street,,,,the contunual warnings about jogging alone...or working alone..be aware of simply things that can become weapons...carry your car keys with one jutting from between the fingers of your favorted hand...make a good object to go at the eyes with.....one school of thought says do not fight back....if your kids are in the next room...i can see that...if not...fight for your life....take a self defense class...he is going to come on you fast....you need to be trained to think....  if you opt for a taser gun make sure you dont have to make full body contract to use it....you want something that shots like on cops.....you dont want to have to jam the taser into them....take a class learn the top in the top of the foot...doesnt take much pressure to break it...learn to kill a man by driving his nose bone into his brain....learn the eyes are a good target with about anything but most of all go to a class to learn one thing....the ability to stay calm and defend  yourself.