By Brandy Selover, Executive Director, Sexual Assault Resource Center

For nearly five decades, the Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC) has moved alongside survivors in Washington County and beyond. Since 1977, our advocates have listened, deeply and carefully, to the truths survivors share about harm, healing, and what safety and healing really require.

Over the last year, those truths have been shifting in ways we cannot ignore.

Historically, many survivors who came to SARC described sexual violence accompanied by coercion, intimidation, manipulation, and other forms of control that were less overtly physically violent. Those harms are real, devastating, and long-lasting. But recently, we are seeing a troubling escalation: sexual violence increasingly accompanied by extreme physical brutality. Survivors are reporting broken bones, strangulation, severe beatings, and injuries that require urgent medical intervention. The violence is more acute, more dangerous, and more likely to be life-threatening.

This shift is not random. Advocates have long understood a core truth of gender-based violence: perpetrators calibrate harm to control. When their control feels threatened (e.g., by a survivor’s autonomy, by social stressors, or by instability), the violence often escalates. In other words, the severity of abuse increases when a perpetrator believes they are losing power.

This pattern is foundational to the Power and Control framework developed by advocates decades ago. What we are witnessing now is that same dynamic playing out in a broader context—one shaped by social, political, and economic loads that feels, for many, like a pressure cooker.

Across our society, violence and dehumanization have become even more visible and, in some spaces, more normalized. We see it in headlines that center state violence, in rhetoric that targets marginalized communities, and in policies that strip people of dignity, safety, and bodily autonomy. When violence is modeled, justified, or minimized at the structural level, it does not stay there. It seeps into homes, relationships, and intimate spaces.

Interpersonal violence does not exist in a vacuum. It mirrors the conditions around it.

The data underscores the urgency. Nationally, nearly one in three women and one in six men experience sexual violence in their lifetime, according to CDC estimates in the United States. In Oregon, rates of sexual violence consistently rank among the highest in the nation. Strangulation, now widely recognized as a critical predictor of homicide, is increasingly reported alongside sexual assault and within domestic violence relationships, dramatically increasing the risk of fatal outcomes. These are not abstract statistics; they represent our neighbors, our family members, and the people who call SARC in the middle of the night seeking help.

At SARC, our advocates are trained to recognize these patterns and respond with survivor-centered, trauma-informed care. We provide confidential advocacy at hospitals, support through the legal process, peer support, and ongoing support and resources. We do this work because survivors deserve more than crisis response; they deserve a community committed to safety, accountability, and transformation.

But advocacy alone is not enough. If we want to reverse this escalation, we must be willing to name the intersections between state violence, social oppression, and interpersonal harm. We must challenge narratives that excuse brutality as inevitable. We must invest in prevention, in education, and in systems that prioritize dignity over domination.

Violence thrives where control is rewarded, and empathy is eroded. Healing grows where accountability, connection, and justice are practiced—individually and collectively.

For nearly 50 years, SARC has believed in the possibility of change, even when the challenge feels overwhelming. That belief is not naïve; it is rooted in the resilience of survivors and the power of communities to choose a different path. Now more than ever, we are called to confront violence in all its forms and to build a culture where safety is not conditional, and control is never misconstrued for strength.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence at any point in their life, SARC is here. And if you are wondering what role you can play (as a neighbor, a parent, a leader, a friend, or a policymaker), the answer is this: speak out, stay informed, and stand with survivors. Our collective response matters.

SARC’s 24-Hour Support & Resource Line is here to help: 503-640-5311.