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Rape Crisis Team observes teal ribbon day today to support victims of sexual assaults
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Rape Crisis Team of Trumbull County has been helping the victims of sexual assault since 1974 and is having its fifth-annual Operation Law Enforcement Teal Ribbon Day today to bring greater awareness of sexual assault.
Becky Peace, who has been a court/victim advocate since 1998 and volunteered for more than a decade before that, said more than 300 ribbons have been distributed to law-enforcement agencies in the county, and they are planning to display them on their cruisers today.
The ribbons will be visible to sexual-assault victims to show them that they have support from the community, Peace said. To the community at large, the day is designed to “let the community know that Rape Crisis [Team] is out there for any and all who need our services,” Peace said.
She said the Rape Crisis Team is “nonjudgmental” about the counseling and services it provides. It doesn’t care whether an individual’s case has resulted in criminal charges or whether it resulted in a conviction, even if the assault took place years earlier, and it isn’t bound by any duty to report sexual assaults except in the case of a person under age 18.
“Our main purpose is, whenever someone chooses to file charges or go to the hospital, we’re there to support them. Our system is totally confidental,” Peace said.
Peace said it would surprise people to know how often senior citizens are victims of sexual assault because they were not raised to talk about such matters as openly as younger people, and senior citzens are not as likely to report them.
Furthermore, the organization is available to help more than just the person against whom the assault was committed.
The organization’s phone number is 330-394-4060.
The nonprofit group has headquarters in Warren and has two paid staff members and 22 volunteers. It provides services at various courts in the county. It also gives presentations to high schools, churches and senior-citizens’ groups.
Peace said there have been a lot of charges filed in recent years for child rapes and other sexual offenses, but she’s never been able to identify any patterns or reasons to explain why the number of sex crimes appears to rise and fall.
Today’s event is part of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month. One in 6 women and one in 33 men are survivors of sexual assault, the organization says.