GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — On Friday, officials in St. Joseph County announced charges against a man accused of invading a home in the area and sexually assaulting two girls living there.
The allegations, some say, are highlighting the issue of sexual crimes in local communities.
"Unfortunately, and this is not meant to fear monger, but [these crimes] are very, very common," said Julia Hawkins, who works as the director of crisis intervention services at the YWCA of West Central Michigan. "And it doesn't matter what your socioeconomic status is, your race, your religion. All people can be and are affected by sexual assault. I think there's a lot of a lot of pain and trauma in families, and that doesn't stop depending on where you come from or who you are."
While officials have said the suspect was in the country illegally following the expiration of his work visa, Hawkins expressed concern about this potentially eclipsing what Hawkins says is an importance of focusing on survivors of sexual assault, abuse and crimes and their safety.
These concerns, Hawkins believes, should be the general public's focus.
"I think it's primarily important to focus on the safety of the people that were harmed - and that's not just physical safety, but emotional safety," Hawkins said. "So if we're talking about so much about the perpetrator, and what may or may not have brought them to harm this person, we're not focusing on 'What do you need? As a survivor, how can we help you?'"
Hawkins said, for families experiencing this, help is available to them.
At the YWCA, for example, survivors can access emergency shelter, crisis help, support groups, medical forensic exams and medical help through a nurse examiner program. All of those I just listed, the organization's website says, are no-cost.
The staff, Hawkins said, is ready to help families through such circumstances.
"Acknowledging to your child, like, 'I know, this is hard, I know this is scary and please know I'm here and you can talk to me about it, and not going to get mad. I'm not going to, you know, have a reaction that makes you feel like, oh, no, mom's not okay or dad's not okay,'" Hawkins said. "So, staying as calm as possible, which sometimes means leaning on one of us. Having that breakdown with us where are you feel all that fear and sadness about what happened. And then, you're able to talk to your child very calmly so that they can feel safe with you."
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