Alaska News

Mat-Su cannot escape Alaska's dishonor

WASILLA - An ongoing study by the University of Alaska Justice Center has once again shown us what for years no one wanted to talk about openly: that violence visited upon women in Alaska far more often than we may realize or want to accept.

The latest results from the Alaska Victimization Survey show that one in two women living in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both. In the last year alone, 2,687 women in this populous region north of Anchorage experienced it. Of the some 30,000 women that live there, 16,033 have been subjected to it in their lifetime. The numbers show that more than six women per day in the Mat-Su experience intimate partner violence, while more than two per day experience sexual violence, according to the survey.

"Just one victim is one too many. As a community we are concerned," Mat-Su Borough Manager John Moosey said. "We want a liveable, safe community, especially for women."

The statistics, released Tuesday by the Justice Center, are an interesting contrast to a different study measuring people's perception about the Mat-Su. Each year, the Justice Center and the Mat-Su Borough conduct a community survey, and awareness about sexual assaults and rape is one of the questions. For 2011, of the 1,159 people that participated in the survey, less than two percent replied that a rape or sexual assault had taken place in their neighborhood in the last six months.

But this difficult task – reconciling perceptions with personal experiences – may cause Alaskans to confront an uncomfortable reality. For the 1,159 people in the Mat-Su who were generally unaware of sexual violence in their neighborhood, another 1,190 – the number polled for the victimization survey – revealed a different story.

"There is a tremendous amount of stigma associated with disclosing domestic and sexual violence. As a result, few people disclose, even to their closest friends and family members. As a result, few people are aware of how common these forms of violence are," explained Dr. Andre Rosay, Director of the Justice Center at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, the group that conducted the survey. "While people don't perceive that domestic and sexual violence are severe problems in our communities, our survey results show that many women have experienced these forms of violence and many are suffering in silence."

The data come just as the Mat-Su is reassembling a Sexual Assault Response Team. SART teams bring all of the people a victim needs to interact with together on one "team" – a specially trained nurse, a victim advocate, law enforcement and prosecutors. The teams are designed to aid in gathering and preserving evidence, while tending to the medical and emotional needs of the victims.

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This is the third year in a row that the UAA Justice Center has carried out its victimization surveys, which aim to assess the rates of violence in ways typical crime statistics don't measure. Instead of looking at violence reported to law enforcement, the surveys instead build data based on personal interviews with women. The women, chosen at random, are asked a series of graphic, intimate questions about how they've been treated in relationships and whether they've ever been forced to do things against their will.

"The levels are unacceptably high," Rosay said Tuesday during a presentation releasing the results. Unacceptably high, just as they have been for every community studied thus far.

Rosay said respondents were asked if anyone had ever had sex with them while they were intoxicated, or through use of physical force or violent threats.

Yet the results likely "underestimate the true magnitude" of the problem because of limitations on the studies, Rosay said. Women who are in shelters, or in prison or hospitals weren't included. Non-English speaking women weren't surveyed; neither were women without a phone. It's thought that the demographics excluded from the survey may experience even greater rates of victimization, hence the belief that the number of women being harmed in the state is actually higher than the data reveal.

The survey also may underreport the number of Mat-Su women who were sexually abused as children, Rosay said.

Steady rate across the state

In 2010, a statewide survey found that 59 out of every 100 women had experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence or both. Subsequent surveys have focused on smaller regions – Kodiak, Sitka, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Bristol Bay, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks North Star Borough, and Wasilla. In coming days, data will be also be released for Kenai and Ketchikan.

While the numbers vary community to community, they all hover within an average ratio showing that one out of every two women are being victimized. Intimate partner violence, which includes pushing, slapping, shoving, kicking, hitting, hair pulling, choking, burning and the use of weapons, is more common than sexual violence – forced vaginal, anal or oral sex.

Ranking communities based on the data is a risky exercise, Rosay said. Because of differences in the survey sizes, who was reached and who was left out, it's not accurate to compare them side by side or to determine if one community is safer than another, he said.

The surveys are conducted through the Justice Center with support from the State of Alaska's Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. The hope is that with measurable data, effective prevention efforts and policy decisions can be made. Women are chosen at random from cell phone and land line numbers purchased for polling by the Justice Center. About half of those numbers end up being bad, Rosay said. But of the ones that get surveyors on the phone with a woman over the age of 18, about 90 percent of the women will choose to take the survey, an unusually high number.

"This is a survey people care about and they really do want to share their stories," he said, adding that many of the women, who are eligible for a small stipend for participating, choose to let the Justice Center keep the money and use it for future work.

The calls are not easy. By talking about their experiences, some women may have a cathartic experience. But others will relive the events and feel re traumatized.

"It's an honor to bear witness to the experiences of these women," said Lauree Morton, Executive Director of the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.

Finding a way forward

The challenge now is for state and local agencies to take good care of the information the women have shared, to use it in ways that will create safer communities. In the Mat-Su, Alaska Family Services, a nonprofit social services agency, plans to bring the numbers up at its annual board meeting in January, where the year's agenda is set. And the numbers will likely become a discussion topic for its Domestic Violence Task Force, said Dr. Donn Bennice, the organization's President / CEO.

Elizabeth Ripley, executive director of the Mat-Su Health Foundation, said she's hopeful the numbers will lead to higher quality conversations about the topic. Reducing domestic violence and sexual assault are top health priorities for the foundation, as are alcohol and substance abuse and childhood trauma.

Lauree Morton with Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault pointed out that the victimized women are more than statistics. They are our mothers, sisters, aunts, neighbors, even ourselves. And for Ripley, quantifying how often women are hurt is a worthwhile undertaking. "Information is power," she said.

Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com

Jill Burke

Jill Burke is a former writer and columnist for Alaska Dispatch News.

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