A lawyer for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights said it best. At last week’s National Sexual Assault Conference, OCR’s Rachel Gettler called inconsistent sexual violence data collection by government agencies “a never-ending issue.” She added with a chuckle, “We’ll see if the government can solve that.”
The annual conference at Washington’s Wardman Park Marriott spanned three days of meet, greet, and agenda-mapping for victim advocates, experts and policymakers. From crisply uniformed JAG officers to activists with edgy haircuts, the attendees were those whose jobs increasingly require expertise in the growing list of government regulations and guidances on sexual assault. Like any other industry conference, it should have been an ideal venue to learn from fellow field professionals’ practical knowledge. The problem? Within the federal government are multiple differing and conflicting approaches to defining and adjudicating sexual assault.
