Partnership helps sexual assault victims

Advocate office sends notifications on whereabouts of their assailants

HARRISBURG — More victims of sexual predators are receiving information about the whereabouts of their assailants, thanks to a new partnership between state police and the Office of the Victim Advocate.

The notifications tell victims if the person convicted of harming them has been released from prison, moved to a new home or gotten a job, among other movements, said state Victim Advocate Jennifer Storm.

For most crimes that result in state imprisonment or parole, notifications to victims are handled by the Office of the Victim Advocate. But a 2011 law requires state police to provide the updates to victims of sexually violent predators, who have been determined by the courts to have a mental abnormality or personality disorder that makes them likely to commit sexually violent crimes. Only 1,440 of the 18,049 registered sexual offenders in Pennsylvania are classified as sexually violent predators or sexually violent delinquent children, according to state police.

Officials involved in a new memorandum of understanding say the Office of the Victim Advocate is better equipped to track victims as they continue with their lives.

“It’s what victims advocates office does best,” said state police Capt. Scott Price. “You don’t go to the butcher to have them bake a loaf of bread.”

When representatives of the agencies met, state police had a roster of about 1,400 sexually violent predators, and about 500 of their victims were receiving notifications, Ms. Storm said.

“We knew that number was very low,” she said. “Many of these

offenders have multiple victims.”

Within the first month and a half of the partnership, the office identified 798 additional victims and signed them up for notifications, she said. Victims can choose not to receive the notifications, though Ms. Storm said few have chosen to do so.

Erica Clark, a Mifflin County probation and parole officer who speaks publicly about having been raped, said the information can be helpful to people who have experienced assault.

“I never realized until I was in this situation that information truly is power,” she said. “I can’t change what has happened to me, but by having a name given to it, having a little bit of support and power, the information just helps to get on with a life that I've created, that survivors have created, that's no longer dictated by the per-petrator."

The collaboration is be-ing paid for by the Pennsyl-vania Commission on Crime and Delinquency through a federal grant.