Legislature(2011 - 2012)BUTROVICH 205
01/24/2011 01:30 PM Senate JUDICIARY
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Alaska Victimization Survey | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
JOINT MEETING
SENATE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
SENATE HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
January 24, 2011
1:31 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
SENATE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
Senator Hollis French, Chair
Senator Bill Wielechowski, Vice Chair
Senator Joe Paskvan
Senator John Coghill
SENATE HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
Senator Bettye Davis, Chair
Senator Dennis Egan
Senator Johnny Ellis
Senator Kevin Meyer
Senator Fred Dyson
MEMBERS ABSENT
SENATE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
Senator Lesil McGuire
SENATE HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
All members present
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Representative Bob Miller
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
ALASKA VICTIMIZATION SURVEY
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
LAUREE MORTON, Interim Director
Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Delivered the presentation of the Alaska
Victimization Survey.
ANDRE ROSAY, Ph.D., Director
Justice Center
University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA)
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Delivered the presentation of the Alaska
Victimization Survey.
ACTION NARRATIVE
1:31:20 PM
CHAIR HOLLIS FRENCH called the joint meeting of the Senate
Judiciary Standing Committee and the Senate Health and Social
Services Standing Committee to order at 1:31 p.m. Present at the
call to order were Senators Paskvan, Wielechowski, Coghill, and
French from the Judiciary Standing Committee and Senators Dyson,
Meyer, Ellis, Egan and Davis from the Health and Social Services
Standing Committee.
^Alaska Victimization Survey
1:32:32 PM
CHAIR FRENCH announced that the business before the committee
would be to hear from Lauree Morton and Andre Rosay who would
present the findings from the Alaska Victimization Survey. He
noted that in 2009 the Judiciary Committee heard a day-long
presentation on sexual assault and subsequently recommended
completing a victimization survey.
1:33:13 PM
LAUREE MORTON, Interim Director, Council on Domestic Violence
and Sexual Assault, thanked the committee for hearing the
results of the 2010 Victimization Survey, particularly because
they are difficult statistics and stories. She said she applauds
the committee's efforts to work with CDVSA to help end domestic
violence and sexual assault in Alaska.
1:34:12 PM
ANDRE ROSAY, Ph.D., Director, Justice Center, University of
Alaska Anchorage (UAA), thanked Marny Rivera, Darryl Wood, and
Brad Myrstol for their collaboration on the project. In summary,
he said, the presentation would include recent statistics for
forcible rape from the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR); the
recommendation for a victimization survey that the Senate
Judiciary Committee made in 2009, key results from the FY10
Alaska Victimization Survey; and the Council on Domestic
Violence and Sexual Assault plans for FY11 and FY12.
1:35:01 PM
MR. ROSAY informed the members that the UCR statistics reflect
information that law enforcement agencies throughout the state
submit to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) on forcible
rape, which is defined as "the carnal knowledge of a female
forcibly and against her will definition." He noted that an
important limitation to the UCR statistics is that they only
include forcible rapes that are reported to law enforcement.
SENATOR DYSON asked if they preclude forcible rape of males.
MR. ROSAY said that's correct; the UCRs define a victim as
female only.
Additional limitations to UCR data include the following:
· Not all police agencies participate in the UCR program
· UCR statistics exclude:
· Statutory rapes
· Rapes against incapacitated victims
· Rapes with male victims
· Other sex offenses, such as online enticement of
minors
· Rapes committed with more serious offenses, such
as homicide
Nonetheless, Mr. Rosay said, these statistics do provide
longitudinal data for assessing the rate of forcible rape
reported to law enforcement over time and across jurisdictions.
1:36:47 PM
CHAIR FRENCH recognized that Representative Miller had joined
the committee.
MR. ROSAY displayed a line graph of UCR statistics from 1996-
2009 for the rate of forcible rape reported to law enforcement
for the U.S., Alaska, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. From 1996 to
2007 the rates in Alaska and Anchorage have been persistently
higher than in the U.S. The Fairbanks data, which has only been
collected since 2003, shows rates that were even higher than in
either Anchorage or all of Alaska. All 4 rates declined slightly
in 2008. In 2009 the U.S. rate continued to drop slightly,
whereas there was an increase in the rates in Anchorage,
Fairbanks and Alaska as a whole.
1:38:32 PM
SENATOR DYSON questioned why the significant rate increase in
Fairbanks in 2006 wasn't reflected in the Alaska rate for that
year.
MR. ROSAY surmised that there was a decline elsewhere in the
state.
SENATOR PASKVAN asked if there's been an analysis to determine
why the Fairbanks rate is so much higher than the Alaska rate.
MR. ROSAY replied that hasn't been done, but he would touch on
why some of these rates change over time. Ms. Morton would
discuss the surveys that are planned for Fairbanks that will
help determine why those rates are higher.
SENATOR PASKVAN asked if he has any thoughts about the higher
rates even if they aren't supported by a study.
MR. ROSAY declined to speculate, but said it's reasonable to
conclude that it's because the victimization rates are
significantly higher in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. He
added that they hope to have a specific answer to that question
within a year.
1:40:08 PM
SENATOR EGAN asked if the higher rate is only for Fairbanks
rather than the Interior.
MR. ROSAY confirmed that the rate is for the city of Fairbanks
only.
SENATOR COGHILL asked if the date is from police and service
organization reports.
MR. ROSAY clarified that the UCR statistics only include data
that were reported to law enforcement. Thus, unreported cases
are not included in the graph.
1:40:53 PM
MR. ROSAY displayed a slide summarizing the UCR forcible rape
statistics for 2007 to 2008 and 2008 to 2009 in the four
jurisdictions. In 2007 to 2008 there was a decline in the rate
of forcible rape reported to law enforcement in all
jurisdictions, but in 2008 to 2009 there was an increase in
Alaska, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. In 2009 the Anchorage rate was
the highest it had been since 1996.
MR. ROSAY highlighted that an important limitation with these
data is that it's impossible to know if the high rates in
Fairbanks are due to higher victimization rates, higher
reporting rates, or both. He said he believes that this
limitation was the impetus for the Senate Judiciary Committee
recommending a victimization survey, to look at both offenses
that are reported to law enforcement and offenses that are not
reported.
1:42:07 PM
CHAIR FRENCH confirmed that for a long time it's been know that
the reported rate of rape in Alaska is far higher than in other
states, but the underlying question is whether it's because
there's a higher rate of reporting or because there's actually a
higher rate of rape in the Alaska population than in any other
state. It's not possible to answer that question without a
victimization survey, he said.
MR. ROSAY referred to the UCR forcible rape statistics for 1996
to 2009 for the four jurisdictions and emphasized that it's not
possible to know if things in Fairbanks are better or
significantly worse, but they expect to be able to answer that
question following the FY11 surveys.
1:43:18 PM
MR. ROSAY displayed pie graphs showing the composition of
violent crime in the U.S. and Alaska for 2009. Violent crime
includes murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape,
robbery, and aggravated assault. This UCR data indicates that 12
percent of the violent crime that is reported to law enforcement
in Alaska is attributable to forcible rape, whereas that number
is 7 percent in the entire U.S.
MR. ROSAY suggested that Ms. Morton discuss the recommendation
for the victimization survey and the Council on Domestic
Violence and Sexual Assault before he reviews the survey
results.
1:44:15 PM
SENATOR PASKVAN asked if the rates for Alaska and the U.S.
include data on average ages.
MR. ROSAY pointed out that the Alaska rate is, on average, two
times higher than the U.S. rate and the Fairbanks rate is, on
average, five times higher than the U.S. and so he believes that
there has to be some bigger difference than age composition to
account for the large difference in rates.
1:45:39 PM
MS. MORTON recapped the 2009 Senate Judiciary Committee's review
of sexual assault statistics and some strategies to reduce the
rates including the recommendation to fund a victimization
survey. Money to do that was included in the Council's budget in
2010.
MS. MORTON informed the committees that the nine-member Council
on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault is housed within the
Department of Public Safety (DPS). Five commissioners or their
designees from the departments of Public Safety, Law,
Corrections, Health and Social Services, and Education and Early
Development sit on the Council. Four public members are
appointed by the governor and one of those is a rural seat.
The Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault has a vision
that Alaska will be free from domestic and sexual violence. Its
mission is to provide safety to Alaskans who are victimized or
impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault through a
system of statewide crisis intervention, perpetrator
accountability and prevention services.
1:47:19 PM
MR. ROSAY continued to explain that the 2010 Alaska
Victimization Survey was developed with funding from the
Council. The survey was designed to establish a baseline that
would provide statewide estimates for intimate partner and
sexual violence. He noted that a limitation of the survey is
that it provides just one statewide estimate, but regional
estimates will be provided very soon.
This survey was modeled after the National Intimate Partner and
Sexual Violence Surveillance System (NIPSVSS), which is the
state of the art in measuring violence against women. The survey
was developed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in
cooperation with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the
U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The UAA Justice Center relied
on the NIPSVSS survey to ensure that the Alaska results would be
directly comparable to the results from other states. RTI
administered the survey by randomly calling people on both
landlines and cell phones. During development and implementation
of the survey, the primary goal was to maximize the respondents'
safety and confidentiality.
1:49:11 PM
MR. ROSAY referenced the handout that includes information about
the specific questions that were used in the survey. The
surveyors first asked respondents about their general health
followed by questions about psychological aggression and control
and slowly moved to ask about sexual violence and intimate
partner violence. They moved slowly to allow time to establish a
rapport with the respondents so that they would feel more
comfortable when answering the more difficult questions on
sexual violence.
MR. ROSAY explained that the survey uses behaviorally specific
questions and avoids terms like "rape," "sexual assault,
"domestic violence," or "victim" because these are words that
the respondents must define. Instead, the surveyors asked about
behaviors like whether they have vaginal sex and, when
necessary, an explanation of what that means was provided. For
example, "by vaginal sex, we mean that a man or a boy put his
penis in your vagina." While the survey is graphic, the data is
far better when behaviorally specific questions are used rather
than asking individuals if they've been a victim of sexual
assault, he said.
MR. ROSAY continued to explain that the survey is also careful
to attribute the behaviors to the perpetrators rather than to
the respondents. For example, the respondents are not asked if
they had vaginal sex with others. Instead, respondents are asked
if others had vaginal sex with them. This is particularly
important, he said, when looking at alcohol or drug-involved
sexual assault because it puts less blame on the respondent and
the data is better when these types of questions are used.
MR. ROSAY relayed that respondents generally were thankful for
the survey just as they are with other victimization surveys.
Prior research indicates that respondents don't mind answering
these difficult questions and understand the value of the
survey. In fact, 94 percent of the respondents completed the
entire 25 minute survey.
1:52:21 PM
MR. ROSAY said that the survey respondents were limited to
English-speaking adult women residing in a household with at
least 1 land or cell phone. In May and June of 2010, 871 adult
women throughout Alaska were surveyed. The sample, overall,
provides an excellent representation of the Alaska population of
women, he said. Nonetheless, there were some minor differences
between the sample and the larger population. Because of this,
they used sample weight to control for selection, non-response,
and coverage. The results, he explained, that were included in
the presentation are the weighted results.
In order to protect the confidentiality of the respondents, he
said, he did not want to give out to much information on the
survey respondents; but he could share a small amount about who
they are. On average respondents were 46 years old, they ranged
from 18 years of age to over 80. Seventy-two percent of
respondents were White, 15 percent Alaska Native and 5 percent
Hispanic. If these statistics are compared to the Alaska
population they match that extremely well. About half of the
respondents were currently married at the time of the survey, 35
percent had a high school degree or less, and 56 percent
reported a household income of less than $50,000 per year. The
sample is geographically representative; the respondents came
from throughout the state of Alaska. However, because it is
geographically representative it also means that it is
geographically concentrated in the Anchorage municipality,
Fairbanks North Star Borough, and the Mat-Su Borough.
1:54:33 PM
CHAIR FRENCH asked if they were able to get an adequate sample
from Western Alaska, an area of particular concern for sexual
assault.
MR. ROSAY said no because the key goal for this first
victimization survey was to provide one statewide estimate. As
they move forward they will produce regional estimates, but at
this point they only have this one statewide estimate.
CHAIR FRENCH asked if they did get samples and responses from
Western Alaska, but not to a degree that allows them to draw any
specific conclusions about that area.
MR. ROSAY answered yes. There were too few respondents and the
margins of error would be very large.
1:55:27 PM
He continued with the results of the survey beginning with
intimate partner violence. He explained that intimate partner
violence includes two measures:
· Threats of physical violence
· Physical violence
Both of these measures were limited to intimate partners only,
defined as romantic or sexual partners. He said that both of
these measures were then combined into a single composite,
called "intimate partner violence." He said he would show the
committee the three separate statistics: one for threats, one
for physical violence, and one for a composite that includes
threats and physical violence.
He said in order to measure threats of physical violence by
intimate partners they asked:
· Have your romantic or sexual partners made threats to
physically harm you?
In order to measure physical violence by intimate partners they
asked:
· Have your romantic or sexual partners:
- Slapped you?
- Pushed or shoved you?
- Hit you with a fist or something hard?
- Kicked you?
- Hurt you by pulling your hair?
- Slammed you against something?
- Tried to hurt you by choking or suffocating you?
- Beaten you?
- Burned you on purpose?
- Used a knife or gun on you?
He reiterated that they used behaviorally specific indicators,
rather than asking them directly if the respondents were victims
of domestic violence.
1:56:24 PM
MR. ROSAY continued by presenting the result of the lifetime
estimate: 47.6 percent of adult women in Alaska have experienced
intimate partner violence in their lifetime. This equates to
117,685 adult women. In many respects, these numbers confirm
what they already suspected. However, now they are able to
specifically tell the committee the magnitude of the problem.
1:57:58 PM
CHAIR FRENCH asked how that number compares to the Lower 48.
MR. ROSAY answered that that information is not yet available
but those results should be available soon. At that time they
will be able to make direct comparison between Alaska and the
Lower 48.
MR. ROSAY continued to explain that intimate partner violence
includes both threats and physical violence. They estimated that
31 percent of adult women have experienced threats in their
lifetime and 44.8 percent of adult women have experienced
physical violence in their lifetime. This equates to 76,644
adult women who have experienced threats in their lifetime and
110,763 adult women who have experience physical violence in
their lifetime.
1:59:24 PM
SENATOR COGHILL asked if the threats and the physical violence
are totally separate or if the 110,000 also include the threats.
MR. ROSAY answered that many respondents experienced both
threats and physical violence. Those who experienced both were
counted once under the composite labeled Intimate Partner
Violence, but they were counted separately under threats and
physical violence. This means that these are, unfortunately,
not mutually exclusive categories.
2:00:11 PM
MR. ROSAY said that they estimated that almost 10 percent or 1
in 10 adult women in Alaska have experienced intimate partner
violence in the past year. In regard to threats, they estimated
that six percent of adult women had experienced threats of
physical violence in the past year and almost 9 percent had
experienced physical violence in the past year. He reiterated
that some women experienced both threats and physical violence
in the past year.
He said they estimated that 23,240 adult women in the state of
Alaska experienced intimate partner violence in the past year.
2:01:03 PM
SENATOR DYSON asked if the survey asked about alcohol
involvement in either the sexual threats or sexual violence.
MR. ROSAY replied not in the intimate partner violence
questions, but they did ask about alcohol and drug involvement
in the sexual violence questions. He said that the survey is
currently 25 minutes and the national survey is significantly
longer. He explained that they made the decision to keep the
survey under 25 minutes so they had to cut out a lot of the
material in order to keep it within this time frame.
2:02:01 PM
MR. ROSAY continued with the sexual violence definitions and
estimates. These definitions included two measures:
· Alcohol or drug involved sexual assault
· Forcible sexual assault
He explained that contrary to previous measures, these are not
limited to intimate partners. The measures are now combined to
create a single "sexual violence" composite, which includes both
alcohol and drug related sexual assault and forcible sexual
assault.
For alcohol or drug involved sexual assault measures they asked
respondents the following questions:
· When they were alcohol or drug intoxicated and unable to
consent, has anyone:
- Had vaginal sex with you?
- Made you receive anal sex?
- Made you perform oral sex?
- Made you receive oral sex?
2:03:05 PM
For forcible sexual assault they asked the respondents the
following questions:
· Has anyone used physical force or threats to physically
harm you to:
- Make you have vaginal sex?
- Make you receive anal sex?
- Make you perform oral sex?
- Make you receive oral sex?
- Put their fingers or an object in your vagina or anus?
- Try to have vaginal, oral, or anal sex with you?
2:03:35 PM
MR. ROSAY continued with the lifetime sexual violence estimates.
Overall, they estimated that 37.1 percent or more than 1 in
every 3 women experienced sexual violence at some point in their
lifetime. This equates to 91,725 women. They estimated that 26.8
percent or more than 1 in every 4 adult women experienced at
least 1 alcohol or drug involved sexual assault in their life
time. He emphasized that they did not ask respondents how many
times people assaulted them while intoxicated. They simply asked
them whether or not it happened. Because of this it is quite
likely that many of the respondents were victimized multiple
times.
In terms of forcible sexual assault they estimated that 25.6
percent or 1 in every 4 women experienced a forcible sexual
assault at some point in their lifetime.
2:05:23 PM
He continued that in regard to the numbers for the lifetime
estimates 91,725 adult women experience sexual violence at some
point in their life time.
He said that the past year estimates reflect that 4.3 percent or
10,631 adult women have experienced sexual violence in the past
year. That includes 8,901 women who have experienced at least 1
alcohol or drug involved sexual assault and 6,181 women who
experienced at least 1 forcible sexual assault in the past year.
He reiterated that many women have experienced both measures of
sexual violence.
2:06:31 PM
CHAIR FRENCH asked how the estimate of 10,631 self-reported
victims of sexual violence compares with the Uniform Crime
Report numbers.
MR. ROSAY answered that it's difficult to compare those numbers
because it includes things that would not be included in the
UCR. However, he said, the question "Has anyone used physical
force or threats to physically harm you to make you have vaginal
sex?" does compare directly to the UCR. They estimate that
almost 5,000 adult women were forced to have vaginal sex in the
past year. This means that 4,995 forcible rapes were committed
in the past year.
CHAIR FRENCH asked what the UCR would indicate to him.
MR. ROSAY replied the UCR generally shows that there are between
500 and 550 rapes reported per year.
CHAIR FRENCH observed that the self-reported victimization rate
is nearly 10 times the rate reported to police. He asked if that
comports with numbers from other jurisdictions.
MR. ROSAY answered he has only seen that comparison for all
sexual violence; they don't have the data to answer the question
for just forcible rape.
2:08:46 PM
SENATOR PASKVAN asked if there has been any follow-up analysis
to the prosecution rates to these categories.
MR. ROSAY replied not in the victimization survey but they have
done some work tracking offences reported to law enforcement
through prosecution and conviction. Because of this there are
some statistics available from previous surveys that they have
done.
CHAIR FRENCH drew the committee's attention to the Spring/Summer
2008 edition of the Alaska Justice Forum, entitled "Case
Attrition in Sexual Violence Offences." He explained that it is
an excellent review of what happens to cases from the report,
the follow-up by the police, referral to the DA, acceptance by
the DA, and prosecution. In summary, he said, once a case is
accepted by the DA there is nearly an 80 percent conviction rate
when a strong case has been built in the field. However, an
enormous amount of police work and nursing work has to be done
in order to build strong sexual assault cases. Without the
upstream work between the report and acceptance for prosecution,
a huge amount of attrition takes place.
MR. ROSAY agreed and emphasized that what they are adding to
this is the even bigger hurtle from the crime itself to the
report.
2:10:31 PM
MR. ROSAY said with regard to lifetime estimates they estimate
that 58.6 percent or 144,881 adult women in Alaska have
experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both
in their lifetime. They further estimate that 47.6 percent have
experienced intimate partner violence and more than 1 in 3 or
37.1 percent have experienced sexual violence.
The summary of past year estimates indicates that 1 in 10 or
11.8 percent of women in the state of Alaska have experienced
intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both in the past
year. That includes 9.4 percent who have experienced intimate
partner violence and 4.3 percent who have experienced sexual
violence.
2:12:07 PM
MR. ROSAY highlighted the following important limitations to the
statistics:
· The survey only provides one statewide average, which may
mask large regional differences. They hope to provide
regional estimates following the FY11 and FY12 surveys.
In part this is to examine the source of the difference
between the Anchorage rate and the Fairbanks rate, which
has had very large UCR rates since 2003.
· The survey excluded non-English speaking women; women who
did not have phone access; women living in shelters,
hospitals, or prisons; and women who were homeless.
MR. ROSAY warned that the estimates should be viewed as
conservative because he believes that they would be higher among
the women excluded from the survey.
2:13:41 PM
MR. ROSAY continued to highlight important limitations to the
survey.
· The survey measured the number of victims, not the number
of victimizations. In part this was to minimize the burden
on the respondents, but because of repeat victimization
it's likely that the number of victimizations would be
higher than the number of victims. This is an important
difference from the UCRs, which measures the number of
offenses reported and not the number of people who report
those offenses.
· The survey did not measure all forms of intimate partner
violence or sexual violence. Therefore, these estimates
should be viewed as conservative.
· While they believe that the survey produces the best data
possible, these estimates may be conservative because of
the continuing stigma of reporting intimate partner
violence and sexual violence and because these are very
difficult questions to answer over the phone.
2:14:55 PM
MS. MORTON thanked the women who participated in the survey who
were asked to relive terrible experiences in order for others to
learn the extent of intimate partner and sexual violence in the
state of Alaska.
The FY10 Alaska Victimization Survey provided the first
statewide, comprehensive, and behaviorally specific baseline
measure of violence against Alaska women. As we move forward
with prevention strategies, intervention strategies, and
offender management, we will be able to look at the baseline and
gauge whether or not we are improving. Within the next six
months we hope to make national and state-by-state comparisons,
but for the comparisons to remain viable it's important that the
core questions remain the same, she said.
MS. MORTON urged legislators to consider these survey results to
help guide policy and practice and budgetary changes to best get
these numbers to come down. "It's difficult to know that 1 out
of every 2 women in this room are affected, or could be," she
said.
2:17:01 PM
MS. MORTON reported that regional surveys will be done in FY11
in Anchorage and Fairbanks with funding that came through the
Council from the Legislature. The Governor's initiative provided
funding for a rural pilot project and 11 communities submitted
proposals. Last week the evaluation committee went over the
proposals and made recommendations to the Commissioner of Health
and Social Services. Once the result is announced, we will work
with the community to implement strategies to reduce domestic
violence and sexual assault and to help establish a baseline for
that community, she said.
2:18:17 PM
MS. MORTON explained that for the FY11 surveys two questions
were added to the core questions as a result of feedback from
respondents, surveyors, and those informing the initiative work.
The first asks if the victimization occurred in Alaska and the
second question is to distinguish when child witnesses were
present at the violence. She said it's important to note that
funding for the surveys is coming through the Council because 2
of their 14 statutory mandates are to collect data, conduct
surveys, present information to the Legislature on domestic
violence, sexual assault, crisis intervention and prevention.
MS. MORTON emphasized the importance of continued funding for
these surveys and said that the Council has requested in the
Governor's budget $400,000 to do more regional surveys in FY12,
to work with the rural pilot project, and to assist 3
communities that are preparing for community readiness projects
to obtain a baseline. The Council has $280,000 in its base for
research efforts and has requested at least $150,000 for
prevention efforts to begin to evaluate a program that's being
introduced in schools called the fourth R for "relationships."
This is an evidence-based strategy that was started in Canada
and has moved to Alaska. It is being piloted in 20 schools this
year.
2:21:31 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked for a discussion of the other
information that was gathered in the survey and if it has been
released.
MR. ROSAY replied it should be available within a week and
cautioned that the information is just as alarming. Both the
lifetime and past year rates are shockingly high in terms of
psychological aggression, coercion and control, entrapment, and
harassment.
SENATOR PASKVAN asked about rates across income spectrums.
MR. ROSAY explained that the sample size isn't large enough for
sub-groups of the population.
SENATOR COGHILL asked if there are other barriers to reporting
besides stigma.
MR. ROSAY said that was not included in the survey, but could be
included in future surveys.
SENATOR COGHILL asked if the significant summertime population
shift and the dramatic fluctuation in the military population in
the Fairbanks area were taken into account.
MR. ROSAY replied the respondents were only asked about their
zip codes.
2:24:36 PM
SENATOR COGHILL commented that it was probably worthwhile to
track whether or not the victimization occurred in or outside of
Alaska. He stated that the rates of victimization were alarming.
CHAIR FRENCH thanked the governor for his efforts in this area.
He stated that while he and the governor disagree on some
issues, they stand shoulder-to-shoulder on this one. He thanked
the administration for some of its efforts, including the Choose
Respect campaign.
SENATOR FRENCH noted that Ms. Morton has been active in the
domestic violence and sexual assault area for many years and
asked if she had any idea that the numbers were so high
MS. MORTON replied the surveys confirm what they have thought to
be true.
CHAIR FRENCH said that part of the desire to do a victimization
survey was based on the hope that reporting was high and that
possibly victimization rates were lower, but that wasn't the
case. He asked for suggestions for what policy makers might do
to address the problem.
2:27:19 PM
MR. ROSAY replied one recommendation is to continue the
victimization survey in order to identify the prevention and
intervention efforts that are working, that aren't working, and
those that are promising. For example, when the VPSO presence is
increased in a community, there's likely to be an increase in
reporting, but they'd also like to see a reduction in the
victimization rate over time. Right now it's difficult to know
the best practices.
The UAA Justice Center has done a great deal of work looking at
ways to facilitate case processing, but it's now clear that the
rate of underreporting is significantly higher than they
thought. This will change the thinking about prevention and
should be an important component of legislators' work during the
session. For a lot of reasons a lot of women don't want to
report to law enforcement so prevention will be a very important
factor in reducing these horrendous rates, he said.
CHAIR FRENCH recalled reading that the presence of a VPSO in a
community greatly increases the likelihood of a prosecutable
case. He suggested that it would be a good test to look at
villages that will get VPSOs in the next year or so to make
comparisons between the current and future rates of both
reporting and victimizations.
MR. ROSAY responded this is something that they hope to look at
soon. The Justice Center has applied to the National Institute
of Justice to look at the impact of VPSOs on the health and
safety of communities. This is a joint project with the
departments of public safety, corrections, law, and health, the
Tundra Women's Coalition, the Alaska Native Tribal Health
Consortium, the Alaska Native Justice Center, and UAA. The idea
is to look broadly at the impact of VPSOs on communities. In the
past they've seen that VPSOs facilitate prosecution and they
reduce the rate of injury in assault cases.
CHAIR FRENCH asked if the assaults that take place have less
serious injuries when a VPSO is present.
MR. ROSAY answered yes.
2:30:45 PM
SENATOR DYSON suggested that the Legislature might help small
jurisdictions pay for rape test kits that cost about $1,600. He
also commented that this discussion is similar to suicide
prevention. Everyone in the room wants to get past dealing with
the problems, and start dealing with the circumstances that make
this happen. Most suicide victims have been traumatized in many
ways, including domestic violence and sexual assault and were
overwhelmed with hopelessness. Someone has to take
responsibility for the cultural norms in communities, he said.
2:33:58 PM
SENATOR COGHILL asked Ms. Morton how often women come into a
shelter but don't report their victimization.
MS. MORTON replied there are many reasons that not everyone who
comes to a shelter or a rape crisis center makes a report. But
most programs do have someone to provide legal advocacy, explain
options and procedures, and help them think through what the
report might mean. She said she believes that reporting can
improve as the prevention campaigns progress. In the past, some
victims had to pay for their sexual exam kit. That no longer
happens, but reporting can still be very difficult. Anything
that can be done to assure that the system is working together
and that community members are more knowledgeable will be
helpful, she said.
SENATOR COGHILL reiterated that he's trying to find out the
barriers to reporting.
SENATOR DYSON noted there has been a significant paradigm shift
in the last several years to keep a person from being re-
victimized.
CHAIR FRENCH thanked Ms. Morton and Mr. Rosay for the
presentation.
2:41:29 PM
There being no further business to come before the committees,
Chair French adjourned the hearing at 2:41 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| JNU Presentation Jan11 FINAL.pdf |
SJUD 1/24/2011 1:30:00 PM |