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Volume 40, No. 8 |
Bulletin
Board
Calendar
Deaths
Ph.D.
Thesis Defenses
Pubs.
and Creations
Applications
due for tuition programs
UI police offer packet, information
The University Department of Public Safety works with all Johnson County police agencies, Rape Victim Advocacy Program (RVAP), and the Sexual Assault Response Team, a group of nurses at University Hospitals and Clinics who are specially trained and certified to conduct sexual assault exams.
The team seeks to coordinate a sexual assault victim’s contact with investigators to assure the best possible treatment while obtaining evidence and help for medical, emotional, and psychological effects of the assault. It also works to spread information and dispel myths. For example, when students question Officer Brad Allison about date rape drugs, he frequently says, “Alcohol is the biggest date rape drug.”
However, Allison has developed a Staff Development course on GHB (gammahydroxybutyrate), one of the date rape drugs, and is hoping to have a test kit by fall that can be used to identify the presence of this drug in a drink.
The department offers University faculty, staff, and students a survivor support resource packet that includes extensive materials from community and University resources, information on the date rape drugs, details on the Crime Victims Compensation Program (a payment program for medical examinations and other expenses), and information on sexual assault, acquaintance rape, and healing from an assault. Anyone may request the packet.
RVAP receives most first reports of sexual crimes on either the local Rape Crisis Line or the Iowa Statewide Sexual Abuse Hotline. Both lines are available to victims 24 hours a day. From July 1 to September 30, 2002, the program registered 84 rapes of persons 13 to more than 65 years old, as well as four attempted rapes and 33 cases of child and adolescent abuse.