TOLEDO, Ohio — April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Nearly half of women and one in three men in the U.S. have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact in their lifetime, according to the CDC.
"We're really not going to solve it, end it or support victims as fully as we can unless we're doing it as a community," Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence spokesperson Taylr Ucker-Lauderman said.
Ucker-Lauderman said in most instances, the perpetrator is usually someone the survivor knows.
There are still stigmas and skepticism surrounding sexual assault survivors, which can deter them from sharing their stories. There are multiple reasons for a survivor not wanting to come forward, though.
"Sometimes victims don't feel safe talking about what happened to them, they may not feel like talking about it will get them the justice they are looking for or just many other reasons, and because many organizations including law enforcement don't actually collect data or have an effective way of sharing it," Ucker-Lauderman said.
Rachael Gardner, the victim services director of the YWCA of Northwest Ohio. said if someone were to report a sexual assault today, it could take 8-12 weeks to get the results from a forensic exam, which would be vital for DNA evidence in a prosecution.
Ucker-Lauderman said from July 2021 to June 2022, there were 35,000 calls to sexual assault hotlines in Ohio.
"If we know that it's underreported and we have 35,000 hotline calls, just imagine how many survivors are out there that didn't call," Ucker-Lauderman said.
Ucker-Lauderman said sexual violence prevention efforts receive fewer resources than they need.
"Rape crisis programs receive less federal funding than domestic and intimate partner violence programs and less than human trafficking programs even though sexual violence more broadly impacts the population," Ucker-Lauderman said.
Some sexual violence prevention resources are listed below:
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673