Usually the advocate will meet the victim at the hospital to stand by her during the initial police interview and, if the victim wants, during the medical exam. The Sexual Assault Victim Advocate's main purpose is to listen to the victim, validate her feelings and reactions, and prepare her for what comes next in the legal process. Advocates also can handle urgent practical tasks such as making phone calls for the victim and giving her clothes to wear home from the hospital if the ones she was wearing are needed for evidence. Later, the advocate will go with the victim to further interviews with the police and others in the justice system. The advocate will accompany her to the grand jury proceedings and, if there is an indictment, will help prepare the victim for court, including such basic steps as showing her the courtroom, explaining the trial process, and assuring her it's all right to ask questions.
Support continues even after the trial, with matters of compensation and restitution.
Crime Victims' Compensation Program. Funds are there to help meet expenses like medical and counseling bills and to help make up for loss of income as a result of the crime. Civil penalties Filing a criminal complaint against a rapist is not the only legal way to make him bear the consequences of his actions. In some cases, it may be productive for the victim to look for a civil remedy-in other words, to sue for an amount to be paid as damages. A civil suit may be against the rapist himself, but suits also have been made against others considered in some way responsible for the crime, such as a motel whose inadequate locks allowed the rapist to enter the victim's room, or the company that failed to check out the rapist's background before hiring him to work in homes where usually he was alone with his victim.