The Victims Services Section of the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) conducted this project with a grant from the United States Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. The purpose of this project was to study the effectiveness of Virginia’s Family Violence Arrest Laws, implemented in 1997, use the information gathered to revise the domestic violence curriculum for law enforcement in Virginia, and update the Sample Directives Manual General Order 2-32 (the model domestic violence policy for Virginia law enforcement agencies). Published by DCJS June 2004.
Curriculum and resources provided at the first session (December 7-9, 2011) of the Advanced Coordinated Community Response & Leadership Institute held in Glen Allen, VA.
The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) is pleased to release the report, Cultivating SART Efficacy: Insights on the Impact of the Virginia Sexual Assault Response Team Mandate. A collaborative effort between DCJS and the Sexual Violence Justice Institute at the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (SVJI), the project explored the implications of the 2009 Code of Virginia legislation (§ 15.2-1627.4) that mandated the establishment of a multidisciplinary response to criminal sexual assault in each locality.
As you’ll see in the report, numerous considerations are presented to further enhance Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) efforts in Virginia. In the coming months, DCJS will begin exploring these considerations through a variety of collaborative efforts, to include training, resource development, SART protocol revisions, and more. We look forward to helping SARTs throughout Virginia become more efficient, more effective, and better able to serve victims of sexual assault.
A summary of results from the full national project is also available here.
This checklist is intended to be used as a tool/resource for law enforcement. It does not supersede any existing general orders, policies, or procedures, and is designed to be used in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) model sexual assault policy. The model policy is available on the DCJS website at www.dcjs.virginia.gov.
In accordance with Code of Virginia § 9.1-1301 (sexual assault policies for law-enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth), all law enforcement agencies are required to have a written policy on responding to alleged criminal sexual assault. This model policy can be used or adapted by law enforcement agencies to meet this mandate, and to promote promising practices for sexual assault response and investigation.