Sexual assault usually presents complex and difficult to document consequences, especially to the victims. People who have been sexually assaulted often experience psychological, emotional, and physical concerns which are not easy to deal with (Popple & Leighninger, 2019). Social workers' role is to offer help to these individuals and ensure the implementation of policies that support their well-being. Rita, a 22-year-old Latina, was sexually abused by a friend to a fellow male co-worker a year ago. Even though Rita took the bold step to go to the hospital to have a sexual assault kit done and to take medications for the treatment of any possible STIs as well as emergency contraceptives, she did not feel comfortable filing a report to the forensic or press charges at the time as she was traumatized, did not want to upset her family, and blamed herself for the incident (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2014).
However, regarding policy laws on reporting a sexual assault case, Rita has only 90 days to decide charge or not (Plummer et al., 2014). Considering the trauma and stress faced by Rita following the assault, this time is inadequate for her to come to terms with what happened to her, to explain details of what happened at the time of the assault, and to make a rational decision on whether to report and press charges against the perpetrator or not. A policy change that would be effective would be to eliminate the 90-day filing limit to allow adequate time for sexual assault victims to make rational decisions.