Conduct Case Reviews

Conducting routine case reviews allows SART team members to become used to discussing difficult issues and to learn to take an objective, problem-solving approach rather than having discussions that polarize agencies. Case reviews also are an ideal time to discuss cases that went well.

Reviewing cases during team meetings offers many benefits. These reviews can—

• Help to ensure uniform, consistent responses.
  • Keeps team members informed about sexual assault cases and can be beneficial for investigations, victim services, and prevention.
  • Provides more complete information that may help with criminal or civil justice objectives.
  • Can lead to modifications to responses that are tailored to specific cases.
• Improve communication and linkages among local and state agencies and enhance coordination of efforts.
  • Improves interagency cooperation and coordination during and after meetings.
  • Facilitates valuable cross-discipline learning and strategizing.
• Improve agency responses in the investigation of sexual assault.
  • Identifies ways to better conduct and coordinate investigations and resources.
  • Leads, potentially, to new policies and procedures for death investigations.
• Improve delivery of services to victims; their family, friends, and colleagues; and the community.
  • Identifies the need for enhanced service delivery.
  • Facilitates interagency referral protocols to ensure service delivery.
• Identify significant risk factors and trends in sexual assault.
  • Allows for a broad perspective related to sexual violence; thus medical, social, behavioral, and environmental risks are identified and more easily addressed.
• Identify and advocate for needed changes in legislation, policy, and practices and expanded efforts in preventing sexual violence. Every review—
  • Needs to conclude with a discussion of how to prevent a similar sexual assault in the future.
  • Can be a catalyst for community action.
• Increase public awareness and advocacy for issues that affect the health and safety of sexual assault victims.
  • Aggregate information from reviews, when presented to the public, can be transformed into opportunities for education and advocacy.

Read on for information about—

• The purpose of case reviews.
• Case selections.
• Confidentiality.