EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS

If you have been sexually assaulted, you may feel confused and alone. You may not understand what happened to you, or what you can do about it.

If you are in immediate danger, or need medical attention, CALL 911 NOW.

If you are safe, you can use this site to Explore Your Options, gathering information to help make decisions about your next steps. The site also provides information for support people on how to respond in a helpful way to sexual assault survivors.

You can find this same information in SEEK THEN SPEAK, a program which also allows you to begin reporting your sexual assault to police. You can read more about this program below, or click on the graphic to get started.

ARE YOU HURT OR IN DANGER?

If you are injured or in immediate danger, try to find a safe please and CALL 911 NOW. Or get someone to call for you.

If this is an emergency, the 911 call operator will stay on the line with you until a police officer arrives to help.

In the United States, there is no cost to you if you call the police for help. You can also get medical treatment even if you don’t have enough money or insurance to pay for it. Call 911 if you cannot make it to the hospital on your own.

HOW TO GET HELP

Police and health care providers can often help people who have been sexually assaulted, even if you are not injured or in immediate danger. Please go to the topics below about how to get medical care (including a special exam for sexual assault survivors called a medical forensic exam), and how to contact police to report your sexual assault.

You can also get help from victim advocates, people whose primary job is to offer support for victims of sexual assault. Victim advocates can help you understand what you’re going through, and explain your options, so you can figure out what choices are right for you. You can read more about victim advocates in the topic below.

If you want to talk with a victim advocate, you can call RAINN, the national sexual assault help line, at 800-656-HOPE (4673).

Or you can search for victim advocacy centers by state or zip code. Just go to the RAINN website, which also offers helpful information about healing, safety planning, and talking to loved ones about your assault.

IS THIS DEVICE SAFE?

We want to make sure you are safe. If there is any potential danger from someone else finding out that you are visiting this site on a computer, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone, we encourage you to stop and come back using a device that belongs to somebody else.

DEFINING WHAT HAPPENED

The information presented here is designed to address sexual assault crimes, not sexual harassment or violations of policies (at work, on campus, in the military, etc.).

People use terms like sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual battery, or rape to describe these crimes, but the words mean different things to different people.

If you don’t know what words to use to label what happened to you, that’s okay. If you report your assault to police, it is their job (and ultimately a prosecutor’s) to determine what crimes were committed based on the evidence and state law.

WHAT IS SEXUAL ASSAULT?

Most felony sexual assaults include sexual penetration, however slight, of a person’s vagina or anus, with any body part of another person, or an object. Oral sex without consent is also a crime, as is attempting to commit a sexual assault.

Some sexual assaults also include additional criminal acts, like other forms of sexual abuse, strangulation, assault with a deadly weapon, or false imprisonment.

No matter what happened to you, sexual assault is never your fault. The person who commits a crime is responsible for it.

WHAT IS SEEK THEN SPEAK?

SEEK THEN SPEAK offers a way for sexual assault survivors and support people to learn and consider next steps.

In SEEK, you can privately gather information and explore your options for medical care, supportive services, and reporting to police. At any point, you can begin completing a report for police. This is where SEEK switches to SPEAK. But this is only for survivors, not support people.

SPEAK guides you through a series of questions, designed to gather critical information about your sexual assault. You can go through the questions at your own pace, taking as long as you need. You can take breaks whenever you want. You can also provide as much or as little information as you choose.

While you are using this program, you will remain anonymous as long as you choose. You might also consider having someone else with you, like a victim advocate or another support person, to help you along the way.

To begin the program, go to SEEK THEN SPEAK.