Abstract
The project aimed to enhance the understanding of victims of sexual harm among future law enforcement officers by partnering with students from the Law Enforcement Candidate Scholars’ Program (LECS). After examining the most critical issues in the literature surrounding underreporting, rape myths, and negative social reactions that victims are often met with, this project resulted in two training sessions for LECS students. Each training session was one hour long and covered the fundamental topics future law enforcement officers would need to know to improve their interactions with victims of sexual harm. At the end of the training session, the students received a training manual and a pocket-sized booklet to reference when they are in their future careers. The post-training assessment survey provided valuable feedback, showing that ninety-five percent of students confirmed that the training was beneficial to their future career in law enforcement. This project highlights the importance of trauma-informed responses between law enforcement officers and victims of sexual harm, with the ultimate goal of better supporting victims.