12.3 Putting It All Together: Key Elements

Key elements to sexual violence case performance and outcome management systems success are:

  1. Active and sustained leadership that supports and encourages implementation and continued use of the system as the primary way to identify areas needing improvement.
  2. Active collaboration among prosecutor’s office, law enforcement, medical forensic examiners, and victim service agencies (advocacy and wellness organizations) — a true performance partnership where each organization contributes to successful sexual violence response.
  3. Assistance from someone specifically tasked with data management and analysis (g., from an IT unit) to develop and maintain the ability of partners to process the data in a timely, meaningful, and reliable way — and link data across partners without compromising victim confidentiality. IT has emerged as a major contributor to enabling partners to obtain the basic information needed to assure that justice is served.
  4. Active, regularly assigned personnel who conduct basic analysis of the data to identify successes and problem areas, and gather insights into the data’s meaning. This allows both criminal justice professionals and the public to understand where progress is being made, identify where attention is needed, and provide explanations for unexpected findings.
  5. Regular reporting of findings in a clear, accurate, and timely manner to all interested parties –including officials in the sexual violence response partnership – as well as the public.
  6. Use of the data by each partner for continuous learning aimed at improving the three “E’s” – effectiveness, efficiency, and equity – when handling sexual violence cases.