sexual assault

On this week’s 51%, we recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month and speak with the head of the Texas Advocacy Project, an organization offering legal support and safety planning for survivors of dating and domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and human trafficking. CEO Heather Bellino says it is critical for survivors to know their rights and have access to support that still allows them to take the lead on how they want to move forward. WAMC’s Josh Landes also details a bill in Massachusetts aimed at closing loopholes around age of consent that currently shield teachers from facing legal consequences for sexual misconduct with students in their care.

On this week’s 51%, we recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month and speak with the head of the Texas Advocacy Project, an organization offering legal support and safety planning for survivors of dating and domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and human trafficking. CEO Heather Bellino says it is critical for survivors to know their rights and have access to support that still allows them to take the lead on how they want to move forward. WAMC’s Josh Landes also details a bill in Massachusetts aimed at closing loopholes around age of consent that currently shield teachers from facing legal consequences for sexual misconduct with students in their care.

On this week's 51%, we speak with journalist and author Pagan Kennedy about her new book The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, tracking the life and work of Martha “Marty” Goddard, who invented the country’s first extensive rape kit system in the 1970s.

The 24/7 domestic violence and sexual assault crisis center that serves Berkshire County is preparing for its first new leader since 2008 to take over operations later this month.

Former Olympian Conrad Mainwaring has been sentenced to a decade in prison for sexually abusing campers at a Becket, Massachusetts summer camp in the 1970s. A warning that this story is disturbing and contains repeated references to sexual assault.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and state officials appeared at Albany Medical Center Monday to announce the opening of a new evidence storage facility.

Goldie Taylor's debut memoir, "The Love You Save," shines a light on the strictures of race, class and gender in a post–Jim Crow America while offering a nuanced, empathetic portrait of a family in a pitched battle for its very soul.

The medical center in Plattsburgh has nearly tripled the number of registered nurses certified to collect evidence from patients in sexual assault investigations.

Writer, journalist, and media critic Ken Auletta reported on Harvey Weinstein 20 years ago.But the story continued to nag at him. What was at the root of Weinstein’s monstrousness? How, and why, was it never checked? Why the silence? How does a man run the day-to-day operations of a company with hundreds of employees and revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and at the same time live a shadow life of sexual predation without ever being caught? How much is this an account of Harvey Weinstein, and how much is this a report about Hollywood and power?He never stopped working on the story. He continued to communicate with Harvey, even in prison, to go deeper to embed Harvey’s narrative within the context of his childhood, his relationships, and the movie business. Film stars, Miramax employees, old friends, and family all talked to Ken at length. The result is the biography, "Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence."

Thirty years ago, Anita Hill faced down an all-male, all-white Senate Judiciary Committee, led by then-Senator Joe Biden, to testify that her boss, Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas, had sexually harassed her. Her new book is: "Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence."