Report Title:

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Coordinator; Appropriation

Description:

Appropriates funds for a coordinator for the Hawaii County Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program. (SD1)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2314

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

making an appropriation for a sexual assault nurse examiners program.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. In 1995, a Hilo woman reported to police that she was a victim of sexual assault and was brought to Hilo Medical Center for a forensic medical examination and evidence collection. The victim remained waiting in the emergency room while a search was undertaken to locate a physician willing to perform the forensic examination. After waiting six hours, the victim finally went home without a forensic examination.

To prevent the above situation from reoccurring, a team of dedicated professionals collaborated and concluded that a sexual assault response team model that includes sexual assault nurse examiners, and that had been successfully implemented in communities in Texas, California, and elsewhere on the mainland, would best fit the needs of the community. In the sexual assault response team model, a sexual assault response team comprised of a specially trained police detective, victim advocate, and the sexual assault nurse examiner, responds to all sexual assault crimes.

A sexual assault response team program was initiated in June 1995, in Hawaii county with forty hours of specialized training provided by Forensic Nursing Services from Santa Cruz, California. The training included anatomy and physiology of adult sexual response, identification and mechanisms of injury to genitalia, forensic procedures for evidence collection and preservation and forensic use of colposcopic photographs, behavior-oriented interviewing of suspects, courtroom testimony and development of protocols. The nurses completed an additional forty-hour preceptorship and, upon completion and skills testing, became certified sexual assault nurse examiners. An additional thirty-two hours of training was provided in August 1995 on forensic examination and criminal investigation in the sexual assault and abuse of children.

In 1995, Hawaii county became the first county in the State to offer a round-the-clock sexual assault response team with a sexual assault nurse examiner in response to sexual assault crimes. The number of sexual assault nurse examiner examinations performed by the county in 2001, 2002, and 2003, were fifty-six (twenty-nine juvenile, twenty-seven adults), forty-three (twenty-three juvenile, twenty adults), and fifty-two (thirty-three juveniles, nineteen adults), respectively. The success of the sexual assault response team and sexual assault nurse examiner program has been clearly demonstrated over the eight-plus years by the significant increase in the reporting of sexual assault crimes and in the successful prosecution of sexual assault offenders.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds for a coordinator position for the county of Hawaii's sexual assault nurse examiner program.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general fund the sum of $          , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004–2005, for a coordinator position for the sexual assault nurse examiner program in the county of Hawaii.

The county of Hawaii shall expend the sum appropriated for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2004.