April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
The month of April brings in the start of spring, fitting that Sexual Assault Awareness Month also happens in April. This annual campaign started in 2001 and aims to raise public awareness about sexual assault, educate on prevention in communities, and address the misconceptions behind sexual assault.
While the movement wasn’t recognized until 2001, its roots started in 1976, with the “Take Back the Night” in response to sexual violence women experience while walking alone at night. In 1990 “The Clothesline Project” consisted of t-shirts created by survivors of sexual assault, serving as a visual reminder of statistics. “Walk a Mile” is an international men’s march designed to raise awareness, and “Denim Day” serves as a symbol of protest around the misconceptions of sexual assault.
It’s important to have conversations and continue to educate our communities, especially in Saskatchewan. A 2020 study with the University of Saskatchewan with Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan found that while the national average of sexual assault cases nationally is 60 per 100,000, the rate nearly doubled in Saskatchewan, to 104 per 100,000. Ninety percent of those victims were women.
It is also important to note that those numbers increased markedly during the pandemic and has been coined the “Shadow Pandemic.” Sexual and gender-based violence, according to the Canadian Red Cross, has increased in Canada by 20-30 percent during the pandemic. Crisis and support centres nation-wide are seeing these increases, and the west-central area is no exception.
Sarah Pashovitz from the West Central Crisis & Family Support Centre states, “Statistics show an increase in these events during the pandemic, and we’ve seen that here as well.” Sexual assault, though statistically more common for women, is not exclusive to the gender, and “we’ve seen an increase in male population reporting sexual violence.”
It highlights the importance of these services in our community. West Central Crisis Centre offers a 24/7 Traumatic Events Response Service that handles a wide variety of traumatic events, including Sexual Assault. Sarah states, “Someone will always answer the emergency line and offers victims of sexual assault access to support services immediately. The response team will help victims make the choice to report or not report and help them through the whole process, offering immediate and continued support.
Reporting and talking about sexual violence is a difficult process for many victims. Victims often feel shame for a situation that is not their fault and is out of their control. This means that many sexual assault cases go unreported. It’s estimated that sexual assault statistics represent only 20 percent of actual cases, a stark reminder of how far we have to go. Organizations across the nation are working hard to change the narrative, policies, and education behind sexual assault to a victim-centred approach to make the process as minimally traumatic as possible.
It’s an approach the RCMP takes as well. Staff Sergeant Kevin Peterson of the Kindersley RCMP states, “Sexual assault is a very personal, traumatic experience,” which makes it difficult to talk about and can make the process of reporting intimidating. Policies have been put in place to address the challenges, and officers are trained to take a trauma-informed approach to reduce the stress and trauma victims experience in reporting these crimes.
The support offered to victims doesn’t end with the reporting process. The RCMP has a comprehensive Victim Services Program designed to lessen the impact of crime and trauma on victims and their families and to assist in their recovery. It’s highly important these crimes are reported and appropriately investigated. Every report is taken very seriously, and there’s a lot of oversight to ensure these crimes are handled correctly, and victims are supported.
Statistics show only six in 100 cases of sexual assault are reported to police, and only 1-2 percent of date rape cases are reported. It’s also been revealed that 80 percent of sexual assault victims are female, and 1 in 4 will experience sexual assault in their lifetime. Sexual assault stats make up approximately 20 percent of actual cases, and 60 percent of sexual assault victims are under the age of 17.
We have made progress in the awareness and education of sexual assault, but as the conversation continues, we can see we still have a long way to go. Staff Sergeant Peterson also notes that there’s always room for improvement in addressing challenges. It’s why conversations like these are so important within the community in raising awareness and implementing a policy that will hopefully reduce the risk of future generations experiencing these traumatic events and improving our approach to dealing with these crimes.
West Central Crisis & Family Support Centre is open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. at 116 - 1st Ave. W. In Kindersley, or can be contacted by calling 306-463-6655. To access the 24-hour emergency line, call 306-463-1860.
