Shattering Silences: Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault, Heal Survivors, and Bring Assailants to Justice

An in-depth look at revolutionary new ways to handle sexual assaults.

Every two minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted, and each year there are nearly 300,000 victims of sexual assault. But victims are no longer silent, and new practices by police, prosecutors, nurses, and rape crisis professionals are resulting in more humane and compassionate treatment of victims and more aggressive pursuit and prosecution of perpetrators.

Shattering Silences a is the first book to cover these new approaches and partnerships. Christopher Johnston shows how the people and organizations implementing these new approaches are having far-reaching impacts on helping victims heal and making it more likely that predators will be arrested and sentenced. His in-depth portrayals of the altruistic and hard-working people behind these radical approaches—based on seven years of interviews—provide a template of best practices for other organizations and communities to follow. With sexual assault taking center stage these days, Shattering Silences is more important than ever.

Christopher Johnston has published more than 3,000 articles in both regional and national publications, including The Plain Dealer, The Christian Science Monitor, and Time.com. He wrote a cover story for The Christian Science Monitor about a rape in Cleveland and the city’s solutions for curbing sexual violence.