May 14, 1992 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 11567 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS FIGHTING FOR RAPE VICTIMS need. It saves victims from the stress and crimes in summer. A lot of people come to the trauma of having to go to different loca­ the beach on very hot nights, take a walk on tions and different agencies. the beach, and they can be attacked under HON. MEL LEVINE We provide 24-hour emergency medical those circumstances. OF CALIFORNIA care and the evidentiary examination for the We also have a large tourist and vulnerable IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES victim. We also provide long-term profes­ population, especially in summer. And we sional counseling services. We provide legal have several large college campuses-college Thursday, May 14,1992 assistance and advocacy. We provide accom­ students are in the highest-risk group for Mr. LEVINE of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise paniment services-we accompany victims rape. today to recognize my dear friend, Gail during the medical exam, during police re­ We have a large homeless population, and Abarbanel, and to share with my colleagues porting and to the courts. And then we also many homeless victims. The myth is that have extensive education and prevention homeless people are committing these an interview published in the Los Angeles programs. crimes, but we actually see more homeless Times. Gail's commitment to women and chil­ We have a large school-based prevention people who are victims. We have had a lot of dren who have been sexually abused is clear. program that reaches about 6,000 teen-agers cases with women who are living on the She has been a pioneer in this area; both the each year in the public schools. It's a three­ streets with children who are raped in front Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center day program that Rape Center instructors of their kids, or cases in which the children [SMRTC] and Stuart House, a program for teach in high school classes for lOth-graders, are also sexually assaulted. sexually abused children, are used as models because teen-agers are more vulnerable to Q: When homeless people go to the police rape than any other age group. to establish similar programs around the coun­ or to someone else for help, are they be­ We have a national campus rape campaign lieved? try. that we've developed because we were seeing A: Yes, but I think the tragedy is that Q&A-FIGHTING FOR RAPE VICTIMS a lot of victims from college campuses. We these people have no alternative but to re­ Gail Abarbanel, director of the Santa produced a film, "Campus Rape," that's turn to the street and to the circumstances Monica Rape Treatment Center. being used in every state in the country on in which they remain vulnerable. Claim to Fame: Founded center that com­ college campuses. We also wrote a book, Q: Do your victims "come from all over Los bines medical treatment with psychological "Sexual Assualt on Campus-What Colleges Angeles? counseling for rape victims. Since its incep­ Can Do," that's being used across the coun­ A: The Rape Treatment Center has no geo­ tion in 1974, the center, based at Santa try to change policy and procedures on col­ graphic restrictions or limitations on serv­ Monica Hospital, has spearheaded a variety lege campuses so that they're more respon­ ices, so we get victims from all over Los An­ of studies and programs. sive. geles County. More come from the Western Background: Abarbanel, 47, earned her un­ Q: What have been some of the center's region of Los Angeles County, but because of dergraduate degree at UCLA and a master's principal innovations? the unique services we provide they come in social work at USC. In 1974, she became A: The center in the mid-'70s pioneered a from far away as well. the first social worker at Santa Monica Hos­ model for hospital-based treatment of sexual Q: Where does the money come from? pital, where she pioneered the concept of assualt victims, and that model has been A: All the center's services are supported counseling rape victims in a hospital. In 1988, adopted all over the country at hospitals and by the community. We receive some dona­ she founded Stuart House to treat sexually other agencies that provide services for rape tions that come into the hospital, as well as abused children. victims. We incorporated psychological con­ private donations through our own fundrais­ (Interviewer: Staff writer Petula Dvorak.) siderations into the medical response; up ing efforts. We have a broad base of commu­ Q: How did you get so involved in the issue until that time rape was really not recog­ nity support, and that enables us to provide of rape? nized to be a psychological emergency as services for free, so there's no obstacle to A: It was one of the first issues I became well as a medical-care issue. getting help if you're a rape victim. Q: What kinds of cases do you handle? Is Q: Do you counsel only women? interested in when I started working at there such a thing as a typical rape? A: Yes. Santa Monica Hospital. It was really by A. We see victims of all ages-small chil­ Q: What would you tell a victim? chance-it was at that point in history when dren to the oldest victim we had last year, A: I don't know if I could answer that in a people were · starting to pay more attention who was 92. They come from every neighbor­ simple way. One issue that some victims to rape. hood, every walk of life, every socioeconomic come here struggling with is a decision Within the first month I saw two women and ethnic group. They really reflect the re­ about reporting the rape. Our belief has al­ who had been raped, who had come here after ality of rape in this community and in this ways been that it's important to report rapes receiving very bad treatment at other places. society. It can happen to anyone. because that's the only way that we're going I was really affected by their experiences. We see a mixture of stranger rapes and ac­ to be able to stop this violence. One victim was a young woman who took a quaintance rapes. We see victims who come But we also believe that each victim has to walk on the beach on a Sunday afternoon here immediately following a rape, and we make her own decision. We encourage it and and was brutally raped by a stranger. She also see victims who were raped a long time we provide the support that helps victims go was filled with humiliation. ago. We see women who were raped months through that process, but we don't coerce She had a lot of fears about her family ago, sometimes as many as 50 years ago, who them. finding out because she felt there was a stig­ never told anyone when it happened. I think that there is more willingness now ma attached to being a rape victim and she The other thing that's striking is that rape than there was 10 years ago to report these felt that they would blame her. Seven days happens in every possible kind of situation. assaults, but there are very different report­ after the rape, she felt no way out other than A lot of stranger rapes happen in the vic­ ing patterns in stranger and acquaintance making a suicide attempt and she actually tim's own home-there are break-ins in the rapes. came to Santa Monica Hospital in the emer­ middle of the night. They also happen in Q: When did acquaintance rape come into gency department having slashed her wrist. parking lots in broad daylight. Sometimes the forefront and become acknowledged as a That really had a profound impact on me women are kidnaped off the street. They problem? and I realized there was no place for her to happen in situations that we're all in and A: The center started dealing with ac­ go, there was no special place for rape vic­ places that we all go. quaintance rape in the late '70s. We began to tims. So that led to the Rape Treatment Q: Is there anything in the Westside that's publicize the issue because we felt there was Center. particularly conducive to creating an atmos­ so much misunderstanding about it. Q: What services does the Rape Treatment phere were a rape can occur? I think acquaintance rape is the most mis­ Center provide? A: I don't think so, but I think in any com­ understood and one of the most prevalent A: What's unique about the Rape Treat­ munity there may be locations or situations forms of criminal violence in this country. It ment Center is it provides all of the services in which rapes are going to occur. certainly is the most common form of rape. victims need in one facility-all the medical, This is a big beach community so there's If you look at police statistics, stranger psychological and legal services the victims always an increase in rape and other violent rape is more prevalent, but in reality ac- • This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor.