Best Practices

There is a significant lack of evidence in general around best practices for sexual violence response services, particularly so when considering the evidence for these practices on college and university campuses. A number of academics have suggested that further research is needed in order to adequately respond to sexual violence in an evidence-based way. For instance, McMahon et. al. noted in 2019 that “there is no research to our knowledge about the impact of campus investigation and adjudication on victim safety, well-being and justice, or offender recidivism or treatment.”

This being said, two programs have emerged from the research as evidence-informed practices for responding to sexual violence: these include the use of Sexual Assault Response Teams (SART), and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE).