Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Western's sexual assault prevention program is up for renewal — does the online training do more harm than good?

    Research shows that online training isn’t successful at changing attitudes or beliefs on sexual assault. This article takes an in-depth look at EverFi, an online sexual assault module that students at Western Washington University are required to take. The program is used at 1,300 other institutions. Researchers recommend programs that target specific individuals. Other methods that have been successful include implementing activities like group discussions, lectures, and policy changes. The programs should also take a long time to complete, for example, a semester-long training versus the few minutes,

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  • The helpline for jealous and violent men

    Most domestic violence telephone helplines offer help to women who have been abused, and counseling programs for men provide their services in prison, once men have committed serious violence. But Línea Calma tries to prevent domestic violence by offering men psychological counseling by phone. The sessions of 60 to 90 minutes focus on helping men understand their feelings of rage, often linked to jealousy and machismo. In just a few months, the line (which in Spanish means the Calm Line) has taken more than 2,000 calls and some couples attest to its effectiveness in enabling men to react more calmly.

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  • Can a Radical Treatment for Pedophilia Work Outside of Germany?

    Prevention Project Dunkelfeld is "arguably the world's most radical social experiment in treating pedophilia." Its prevention-first approach to providing treatment to people who are sexually attracted to children means that it encourages people to volunteer for treatment and disclose past and planned crimes without the threat of being reported to authorities and punished. German law makes this possible, but in most places such crossing of lines from thoughts to action would be grounds for mandatory reporting. This policy and the program's disputed claims of effectiveness have drawn harsh criticism.

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  • There's a detective at the door; she wants to say 'sorry'

    Using a federal grant to reopen unsolved sexual assault cases, Tucson police and prosecutors have provided hundreds of victims with something they were denied when they first reported being attacked: a clear sense that authorities take their cases seriously. Dozens of possible serial rapists were identified when DNA testing was finally performed, and several suspects were prosecuted. When notifying victims their long-ago cases were getting a second look, detectives and victim advocates start with an apology for neglecting or mishandling the cases in the past.

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  • “You Save as Long as You Have To”

    The first DNA database in unsolved rape cases was created at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center nearly 50 years ago by a forensic pathologist who was appalled by the callous treatment of rape victims and the impunity their attackers were granted. Dr. Rudiger Breitenecker's methodical storage of physical evidence and meticulous documentation enabled dozens of convictions, and some exonerations, decades later with the development of DNA testing. Baltimore County's use of the evidence became a model for other prosecutors and police around the country.

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  • ‘How to Report a Hate Crime' booklets empower Asian Americans amid rise in discrimination

    Worried for her Korean-immigrant parents' safety during rising anti-Asian hate crimes, a Los Angeles woman wrote and printed a booklet, "How to Report a Hate Crime." The booklet, now in nine languages and distributed across the U.S., gives instructions on what to do and where to call for help when reporting a hate crime. The target audience is elderly Asian Americans, who tend to be reluctant to report such crimes and who rely more on printed materials than online information. So far, donations have paid for 60,000 reprints. The booklets are available for free downloads at hatecrimebook.com.

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  • To Curb Domestic Violence, City Enlists ‘Sisters of the Well'

    In Mongolia's capital city, more than 600 people who staff the kiosks where most residents get their drinking water have been trained to spot signs of domestic abuse. The Smart Triangle program aims to overcome low rates of reporting such crimes to the police in this patriarchal society by shifting the reporting burden to people well situated to observe a neighborhood's daily life. Other sorts of responses show stronger effects than bystander interventions like this. But the short training curriculum is not costly to produce and has helped some women.

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  • Dependency Court Programs Focus On Babies' Health

    The Safe Babies program model trains judges to oversee foster-care cases with the goal of fixing the problems that led social workers to remove young children from their homes. Operating swiftly, so that babies do not lose precious weeks and months apart from their parents at a critical time, programs like Best For Babies in Pierce County, Washington, put teams of medical and mental health experts on a case. Nationwide, the program used in 30 states makes family reunification much more likely and rapid, with healthier parental attachments and child development.

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  • How WhatsApp became a tool for Indian police to fight harassment

    In India, where women face high rates of harassment by men but rarely report abuse because they view the police as hostile, the Telangana State Police encouraged more reporting by turning WhatsApp into an anti-harassment hotline. By using the country's most popular phone app rather than one of the many safety apps designed for this purpose, the police now get about 40% of their complaints through this channel. Turning complaints into prosecutions remains a challenge. But, when women decline to press charges, the police require alleged harassers to attend counseling.

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  • Bay Area Girls Lead Campaign Against Sexual Harassment on Public Transit

    A coalition of groups advocating for young girls of color succeeded in winning new policies and financial support to combat sexual harassment on public transportation. By surveying middle and high school students about their experiences, the groups behind the "Not One More Girl" campaign convinced Bay Area Rapid Transit system officials to install posters, make reporting of incidents easier, and pay for non-police "transit ambassadors" and crisis intervention specialists to patrol trains.

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