Press Release: To Mark Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Boston Area Rape Crisis Center Promotes Online Safety

Activities Reflect National Theme of Building "Safe Online Spaces" in Era of Increased Digital Connection 

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), a time nationally dedicated to raising public awareness about sexual violence and educating communities on how to prevent it. Now in its 20th year, this year’s SAAM theme is “We Can Build Safe Online Spaces,” which aims to raise awareness that sexual harassment and abuse can and does happen online and how to intervene when we see harmful content or behaviors. As COVID-19 continues to curtail in-person interaction, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) will continue to promote safer digital spaces for survivors and empower bystanders to prevent sexual violence online as well as in face-to-face interaction. 

“As Sexual Assault Awareness Month begins, many people continue to rely on the internet for work, school, socialization, entertainment, and even medical care due to the ongoing pandemic. We’re thankful that technology enabled us to quickly adapt our programming so that survivors and their loved ones could safely access critical information and services online. But the reality is that the internet is also a place were sexual harassment and abuse can and does happen,” said Gina Scaramella, executive director of BARCC. “Children are groomed for assault, teens and young adults are pressured to share nude photos or livestream sexual activity, employees are exposed to explicit sex acts during online work meetings, online public events are disrupted with porn, and more. Among the many issues the pandemic has exposed is a deep need to make online spaces safer for everyone, including survivors, and that’s one of the things we’re looking to draw attention to this month.” 

BARCC will mark SAAM with the following events: 

• April 15: Supporting Survivors in Honor of SAAM, a free webinar on how to support the survivors of sexual violence in your life. The session will cover the impact of sexual trauma as well as BARCC’s SEECK (safety, empowerment, empathy, connection, and knowledge) model for responding. This one-hour workshop is for anyone who wants to learn more about how to show up for the survivors in their life.
• April 25: Virtual 15th Annual Walk for Change: Healing for Every Survivor, an uplifting morning of healing and hope to publicly support survivors and raise funds for BARCC’s free, confidential services.
• April 27: Being an Active Bystander in Honor of SAAM, a free webinar for anyone who aims to make their communities safer. It will teach tools and skills to help individuals intervene to prevent sexual violence.

Facts about sexual violence

• Sexual violence is any form of sexual interaction without consent (or permission). Consent means that you want to be engaged in whatever sexual behavior is happening. If someone is feeling pressured, coerced, manipulated, or threatened, that is not consent. If someone is incapacitated due to drugs or alcohol, that is not consent.
• Sexual violence affects people of all genders, ages, races, religions, incomes, abilities, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. Survivors often know the person who assaulted them. Sexual violence, which is significantly underreported, also takes many forms, including rape or sexual assault; childhood sexual abuse and incest; sexual harassment; sexual exploitation and trafficking; unwanted sexual contact/touching; exposing one's genitals to others without consent; or masturbating in public.
• According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2015 Data Brief, in the United States, more than two in five women (43.6%) and almost one in four men (24.8%) have experienced some form of contact sexual violence during their lifetime. Approximately one in five women (21.3%) and one in 38 men (2.6%) in the United States have been raped (completed or attempted) at some time in their lives.
• Almost one in two transgender people (47%) surveyed have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime, according to the U.S. Transgender Survey.
• One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18 years old, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
• People with a disability of any kind have an age-adjusted rate of rape or sexual assault that is more than twice the rate for people without disabilities, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey and the 2010 Massachusetts Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System.
• One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
• Ten percent of Massachusetts high school students report experiencing sexual contact against their will in the last year, according to the state’s most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
• Over 12% of high school students with two or more racial identities reported having been raped at some point in their lives as compared with 11% of Hispanic students, 9.6% of Black students, and 4.9% of white students.

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About the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC)

Founded in 1973, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center has a mission to end sexual violence through healing and social change. BARCC provides free, confidential support and services to all survivors of sexual violence ages 12 and up and their families and friends throughout Greater Boston. It works with survivors from the immediate crisis after sexual violence to years and decades later, and its goal is to empower survivors to heal and seek justice. BARCC also works with a wide range of organizations and communities, including schools, colleges, and police, to advocate for change. It provides training in how to respond to survivors and create cultures that prevent sexual violence. Follow BARCC on social media: Twitter @barcc; Instagram @barccofficial; Facebook /barcc.org.