Correction: A previous version of this story reported Kathy Rose-Mockry, director of the Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity, thought the app, "I've Been Violated" was a "step in the right direction." That is incorrect, as Rose-Mockry said she does not endorse any specific product nor is she familiar with this specific app. The article has been changed to reflect the correction.
An app that provides a secure place for sexual abuse victims to record evidence called "I’ve Been Violated" is now available for free in the iTunes App Store.
The app is a part of the "We Consent" app suite, created by Michael Lissack, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence.
The Institute was founded in 1999 and in 2015, ISCE created the Affirmative Consent Division, according to the ISCE website. Additionally, the Affirmative Consent Division was created "as an experiment in the application of resilient coherence ideas to a very pressing social problem. Affirmative consent is an emergent response to changing social mores regarding sexual interactions."
“The suite of apps is designed to help college students transition to the ‘only yes means yes’ standard,” Lissack said.
Lissack said 85 percent of people who have been abused are not ready to talk to police immediately after the event.
“When they delay reporting, police have an obligation to question the victim. ‘Why did you wait?’ ‘Why did your story change?’” Lissack said.
The I’ve Been Violated app works by allowing victims to immediately record a story of the event. The app asks a few questions, including what happened, who the assaulter was and it allows the victim to photograph any evidence. The record, which according to the ISCE website is geocoded and time stamped, is then encrypted to a storage database.
“As a legal safeguard, the video record that the user creates is only available through appropriate authorities (legal, health, school) or by court order and is never directly available to the user,” according to the app description.
Lissack said the victim must share that the record exists with the authorities, giving them information as to when the video was recorded and what phone was used.
The authorities may then contact the app and request the record.
Victims do not have access to their record after it has been recorded to ensure the evidence is protected, Lissack said.
Lissack said the app has been downloaded thousands of times and more than 500 videos have been recorded so far — although the videos recorded may have only been people trying out the app instead of actual cases.
Kathy Rose-Mockry, director of the Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity, said, “I think it is important that we find many avenues for keeping people safe from sexual assault. I think we have made progress in thinking about this as a community problem, not just a problem for women. We need to continue working towards that.”
The app suite is available for purchase by universities and other organizations for $3 and $5 for individuals. Lissack said around 50 sports teams have purchased the app for their members.
Alison Morano, co-founder of the Affirmative Consent Project, helped advise Lissack in the creation of the apps.
“Technology is what college students do now. It is very important to have an app that you can have in your hand and you can immediately record your story and know that it is safe to do so,” Morano said.
Morano says there has been a huge social shift regarding the discussion of consent and what it means in recent years.
“I’ve seen tremendous social change in a year,” Morano said. “People are now being taken seriously. There are more resources dedicated to making you feel safe.”
The "We Consent" suite of apps is currently only available on an iPhone, but an Android version is coming soon.
— Edited by Shane Jackson