My visit with STAR (Standing Together Against Rape)

After last weeks rally, and the emotional response to my post about it, I found myself a little stuck. I could not seem to stop thinking about sexual assault and the incredibly high number of them in Alaska.

As a lifelong resident of Alaska I have always been aware that we led the nation in rape, as we do in alcohol consumption and incest. These are troubling statistics to be sure, but for most of us they are simply numbers with no familiar faces or emotional impact to accompany them. At least that is what we like to believe.

The facts indicate that victims of sexual assault in Alaska are invariably people that we know. They are the cashier at the local Carrs grocery store, the receptionist at the law office down the road, the Barista making your Cappuccino on your way to work, the little girl at your doors selling you Girl Scout cookies, or even the male mechanic changing your oil. The chances are very good that one, and perhaps even ALL of these people have been sexually assaulted at one time in their lives. You may never be aware of the pain and shame that they carry with them as they live their lives, raise their children, and struggle to trust the people in their lives, but that does not mean it does not exist.

So I decided to visit the offices of STAR in midtown Anchorage, to get an education about just how prevalent this problem is in our community.

During my visit to STAR, talking with Program Director Keeley Olson and Kirsten Strolle, I learned that 1 in 3 women, and 1 in 6 men, in Alaska will be the victim of a sexual assault in their lifetime. (This number includes abuse which happens in childhood.) Just this year alone, from January to September there have been 202 incidents reported to SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) and 760 incidents of assault against children. And those are only the ones that have been reported in Anchorage. Assaults that happen in other parts of the state are reported to other STAR offices, if they are reported at all.

These numbers are dramatically larger than the national numbers, which have 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men suffering sexual assault.

This disparity was so shocking that, of course, I wanted to know why.

Since we also have a high incidence of alcoholism, I asked how many of these assaults were alcohol related. I was reminded that being drunk was no excuse for assault, which of course I knew, but I suppose I was also looking for something handy to blame for this terrible crime. I expected that alcohol would be a factor in the majority of these cases, but no. I was told it was a factor in only about half of these incidents, which means that half of these cowards were in complete control of their faculties when they decided to rape a child or assault a family member or friend. (Did I mention that almost ALL sexual assaults are done by somebody the victim knows?)

I also learned that the majority of victims of adult sexual assault had been victimized as children, that the predators are often witnesses of domestic abuse as children, and that when the PFD(Permanent Fund Dividend) checks are issued the number of assaults double in size.

As I absorbed these heartrending statistics I was confronted by even more discouraging information.

Apparently even after a woman, man, or child, reports a sexual assault, after they have had to recount the painful story to a STAR employee, and again to an Anchorage police officer, and then undergone an intrusive and dehumanizing medical exam to gather evidence, it then gets sent to a lab out of state. And at this lab, believe it or not, it can take YEARS for the sample to be processed.

Until this is processed there will be NO prison time for the assailant, without witnesses or a confession. So for years the victim may still be living in close proximity, or even in the same house, as their attacker unless they have been removed by the state (in the case of children) or they have found another place to live. And in a village of 500 or less, how far away can you really get from the person who raped you?

And people wonder why there are so many unreported cases of sexual assault up here.

I asked if the ethnicity of the victims determined if they were any more likely to be victimized sexually and was told that the majority were Alaskan native women and children. I was also informed that while it was usual for most races to be assaulted by a member of their OWN race (African Americans attacking fellow African Americans, Caucasians assaulting Caucasians, Asians with Asians, etc. etc.), that native women in Alaska were perpetrated against by ALL ethnicity's. It appears that something about the often shy and passive nature of the native women singles them out for victimization.

As I drove away from the STAR offices on Fireweed Lane, I found myself taking inventory of the number of women and children I have met in my life that I knew had been victims of sexual assault. When I stopped to think about it the number was staggering. I came to realize that at least a dozen women that I knew very well had been the victim of rape and that I also knew over 30 individuals who had been assaulted as children. With that sudden realization it was clear that the "one in three women" statistic was certainly not an exaggeration.

I would like to believe that the situation in Alaska was improving, however another thing that I learned to my dismay is that 2009 is headed toward becoming another record year for sexual assault.

STAR is doing a wonderful job of educating children in our local schools and advocating for the victims of sexual assault but they are underfunded and often overwhelmed with the shear number of people who request their services.

If you would like to help by donating to them then you can do so by clicking here. If you live in Anchorage and would like to donate your time instead (You can do so from the comfort of your own home)then click here. If you would like to learn more information concerning sexual assault in general then please click here.

It only takes one concerned person willing to reach out and hold the hand of a victim who has been stripped of their dignity, and left feeling empty and exposed to the world, which helps that person begin their long journey toward healing. Think of how many shattered lives we could repair if each of us took a moment to open our arms to somebody who has suffered at the hands of predator.