We've already had a dose of bad news today about the fictional Special Victim's Unit, and now comes bad news for the real-life equivalent: in the midst of the budget crunch, the city is planning on axing its hospitals' special victim's units. "What kind of message are we sending victims of sexual assault?" Brooklyn City Councilman David Greenfield rhetorically asked the News.
The city currently has four specific units which are tasked with counseling rape victims and collecting forensic evidence when they arrive at each of the city's 11 hospitals. City Health and Hospitals Corp. are planning to cut nearly $100 million this year, and cut staff by at least 1,600 in the next three years—they argue that in-house doctors and nurses are trained to assist assault victims, and that by cutting the program, they can save $1.2 million this year.
Despite the assurances that hospital staff know how to handle victims of sexual crimes, health care and woman's rights advocates say it's no adequate substitute, and add that the program has gained international acclaim: "It would be a terrible idea. People from other countries have come to look at the work being done," said Harriet Lessel, executive director of the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
Although crime was down overall In 2010, the number of rapes increased. And in the first quarter of 2011, it's gotten even worse: there have already been 340 rapes reported, a 24 percent increase from last year and a 32.8 percent increase from 2009.
