If You Are Assaulted

If You Are Assaulted

Get to a safe place.

Call a friend, family member, or if you choose, the police for help.

Call the Rape Crisis Center for support and information on possible options you have regarding reporting or not reporting the assault.

Remember

Reporting to the police is YOUR choice.

Don’t shower, bathe, douche, change clothes, or straighten up the area if you plan to report the attack. You will destroy the evidence you may need.

What Consent Looks Like

​Consent is an agreement between two people to engage in sexual activity.

Consent is about communication!

Giving consent one time for one activity does not mean consent is given for increased or reoccurring sexual contact.

What is Trauma?

It is important to remember, that everyone experiences some type of trauma in their life. We suffer it individually, as a family, or as a society. We experience life-altering accidents, a health crisis, the death of a loved one, or a natural disaster. The aftereffects of trauma are nothing to be ashamed of. People suffer from physical, emotional, and cognitive effects. In the acute trauma stage (the first 30 days) a person can feel anxiety, lack sleep, have nightmares, become hypervigilant, experience increased depression and feel physically ill. Traumatic events, physical or psychological have short and long-term effects on your health. Even if you do not have physical injures, your health may be impacted.

If you experience sexual assault, abuse, or any intimate partner violence your physical and emotional health can be affected. Survivors of trauma might feel shocked, scared, guilty, ashamed, angry, or vulnerable. Trauma tends to be harder to recover or cope with if it is a repeated trauma or it happens in childhood.

The North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center provides services to help survivors and their family and friends find their healing path from these traumatic events. Those services include individual and group counseling.

Victims’ Bill of Rights: Marsy’s Law

On November 4, 2008, the People of the State of California approved Proposition 9, the Victims’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008: Marsy’s Law. This measure amended the California Constitution to provide additional rights to victims. This card contains specific sections of the Victims’ Bill of Rights and resources. Crime victims may obtain additional information regarding Marsy’s Law by contacting the Attorney General’s Victim Services Unit at 1.877.433.9069; the local Victim Witness Assistance Center may be contacted at 1.805.654.3622.

1. To be treated with fairness and respect for his or her privacy and dignity, and to be free from intimidation, harassment, and abuse, throughout the criminal or juvenile justice process.
2. To be reasonably protected from the defendant and persons acting on behalf of the defendant.
3. To have the safety of the victim and the victim’s family considered in fixing the amount of bail and release conditions for the defendant.
4. To prevent the disclosure of confidential information or records to the defendant, the defendant’s attorney, or any other person acting on behalf of the defendant, which could be used to locate or harass the victim or the victim’s family or which disclose confidential communications made in the course of medical or counseling treatment, or which are otherwise privileged or confidential by law.
5. To refuse an interview, deposition, or discovery request by the defendant, the defendant’s attorney, or any other person acting on behalf of the defendant, and to set reasonable conditions on the conduct of any such interview to which the victim consents.
6. To reasonable notice of and to reasonably confer with the prosecuting agency, upon request, regarding, the arrest of the defendant if known by the prosecutor, the charges filed, the determination whether to extradite the defendant and, upon request, to be notified of and informed before any pretrial disposition of the case.
7. To reasonable notice of all public proceedings, including delinquency proceedings, upon request, at which the defendant and the prosecutor are entitled to be present and of all parole or other post-conviction release proceedings, and to be present at all such proceedings.
8. To be heard, upon request, at any proceeding, including any delinquency proceeding, involving a post-arrest release decision, plea, sentencing, post-conviction release decision, or any proceeding in which a right of the victim is at issue.
9. To a speedy trial and a prompt and final conclusion of the case and any related post-judgment proceedings.
10. To provide information to a probation department official conducting a pre-sentence investigation concerning the impact of the offense on the victim and the victim’s family and any sentencing recommendations before the sentencing of the defendant.
11. To receive, upon request, the pre-sentence report when available to the defendant, except for those portions made confidential by law.
12. To be informed, upon request, of the conviction, sentence, place and time of incarceration, or other disposition of the defendant, the scheduled release date of the defendant, and the release of or the escape by the defendant from custody.
13. To restitution.
    1. It is the unequivocal intention of the People of the State of California that all persons who suffer losses as a result of criminal activity shall have the right to seek and secure restitution from the persons convicted of the crimes causing the losses they suffer.
    2. Restitution shall be ordered from the convicted wrongdoer in every case, regardless of the sentence or disposition imposed, in which a crime victim suffers a loss.
    3. All monetary payments, monies, and property collected from any person who has been ordered to make restitution shall be first applied to pay the amounts ordered as restitution to the victim.
14. To the prompt return of property when no longer needed as evidence.
15. To be informed of all parole procedures, to participate in the parole process, to provide information to the parole authority to be considered before the parole of the offender, and to be notified, upon request, of the parole or other release of the offender.
16. To have the safety of the victim, the victim’s family, and the general public considered before any parole or other post-judgment release decision is made.
17. To be informed of the rights enumerated in paragraphs (1) through (16).

Source: California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation

www.cdcr.ca.gov/victim­_services/Marsys_Law.html

North County Rape Crisis & Child Protection Center

Lompoc Office

511 E Ocean Ave, Lompoc, CA 93436

(805) 736-8535

Santa Maria Office

301 Miller St # 206, Santa Maria, CA 93454

(805) 922-2994

office@ncrccpc.org

Copyright 2020. North County Rape Crisis. All Rights Reserved.