Orange County recognizes Sexual Assault Awareness month

Correction: The “by the numbers” with this story originally incorrectly the ratios of sex offenders to residents. It has be fixed to correct the error. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

Some face the trauma with tears. Others go numb and shut down completely.

For Rachel Kinney, helping victims of sexual assault deal with emotions like these is an everyday reality.

Serving as crisis response coordinator for the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, Kinney, along with her coworkers, helped nearly 380 survivors of sexual assault and their loved ones in 2010. She said she expects that number to increase by at least 10 percent before the end of the fiscal year.

“We live in a culture that still wants to find a reason why rape happens,” Kinney said. “It’s easy to say there must have been something the victim did that asked for the behavior or let it happen.”

With these difficulties in mind, the Orange County Board of Commissioners partnered with the crisis center to declare April 2011 as Sexual Assault Awareness month.

Sabrina Garcia, sexual assault and domestic violence specialist for the Chapel Hill police, said many victims delay getting help or taking legal action because they’re afraid of retaliation or shame.

“It’s a very difficult crime to prove,” Garcia said. “Only about 3 percent nationally get prosecuted, and that’s really disconcerting when you’re a victim.”

The crisis center, which opened in 1974, provides counseling to victims and also focuses on sexual assault prevention through education.

Beginning in pre-kindergarten, students in the Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools districts are educated about sexual assault prevention in an age-appropriate manner.

Shamecca Bryant, the center’s executive director, said the outreach programs first work to inform young children about what parts of their body are private.

“We want to make sure kids feel safe to tell if someone hurts them or asks them to keep a secret that hurts their body,” Bryant said.

It is also important to be present as students get older and enter college, Kinney said.

“It needs to be common knowledge starting in pre-kindergarten and going all the way through school to college campuses, in Greek communities, in clubs,” she said. “They need to know that an atmosphere of sexual violence will not be tolerated.”

Though Orange County has fewer registered sex offenders per capita than many larger North Carolina counties, Garcia said the area has been lucky.

“Rapists have told me that all they need is two things: accessibility and vulnerability,” she said.

In 2010, the Chapel Hill Police Department received 104 reports of sexual violence — which can range from rape to “peeping toms” to obscene phone calls.

According to the North Carolina Department of Justice’s website, there are 82 registered sex offenders living in Orange County, 24 of which live in Chapel Hill.

“Every city and town has sex offenders,” she said. “That’s just how it is.”

The rape crisis center can be reached at (919) 967-7273.

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.