Eliminating Silos: Developing System Design for Information Sharing in Violence Prevention

The 21st century has brought about changing social perspectives on victimization and offender accountability related to sexual violence. States across the United States have established, and continue to develop, legislation and protocols to address such violence. While there has been a great shift in combating this form of violence, it is essential to create structures to enhance services for victims as well as create recommendations for those who work to hold offenders of these violent crimes accountable. This dissertation was conducted using a qualitative content analysis (QCA) of documents from the Palm Beach County Sexual Assault Response Team (PBC SART), the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence (FCASV), and the National Sexual Violence Resource Centers (NSVRC) SART toolkit. The purpose of this case study was to understand the successes and challenges of SART. The researcher also examined the guidelines and protocols translating from theory into practice. Findings revealed that while there were successful first steps in community coordination, SARTs are not effective in reaching their overall goals. With this result, the researcher offered important recommendations of a systems design for information sharing