Rape Prevention and Education

Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) Program

Sexual and domestic violence – including rape – is preventable. Recognizing this, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994. This landmark legislation established the Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The goal of the RPE program is to strengthen sexual violence prevention efforts by focusing on primary prevention; preventing sexual violence before it occurs. It operates in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and six U.S. territories.

The primary goal of Washington State's RPE program is to support communities in preventing the first-time perpetration of sexual violence. This is done by building community capacity to identify and transform the underlying conditions that allow sexual violence to exist - changing the (harmful) norms, values, beliefs, and attitudes that cause sexual violence through the shifting of ownership of solutions from social services to the community. The RPE program encourages the development of comprehensive prevention strategies through activities that address all levels of social influence – creating change in individuals, relationships, communities, and society. It is important that prevention activities are developmentally appropriate and are conducted at different life stages. This saturated approach is more likely to prevent sexual violence across a lifetime, than any single intervention or policy change.

Further information on the RPE program:

• State Action Plan (PDF)
• Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) Fact Sheet (PDF)
• Sexual Violence Risk and Protective Factors: A Systematic Review of the Literature (PDF)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (PDF)
• National Sexual Violence Resource Center
• Washington State's Sexual Violence Prevention Plan (PDF)
• The Washington State Rape Prevention And Education (Rpe) Evaluation Toolkit
  Full Document - Form version (PDF) Print version (PDF)
• Toolkit Intro (PDF)
• Module 1: Evaluation checklist (PDF)
• Module 2: Theory of Change (PDF)
• Module 3: Evaluation Planning (PDF)
• Module 4: Best Practices for Evaluation (PDF)
• Module 5: Implementation Reporting (PDF)
• Module 6: Outcome Reporting (PDF)
• Module 7: Challenges, Lessons Learned, and Implications for Program Improvement (PDF)
• Module 8: Success Stories (PDF)
• Module 9: Annual Evaluation Report (PDF)
• Module 10: Data for program planning and evaluation (PDF)
• Module 11: Community-Level Prevention (PDF)
• Module 12: Required Evaluation of Outcomes (PDF)
• Appendix A: Evaluation of Prevention Principles (PDF)

Key program partners include:

• Washington State Department of Commerce, Office of Crime Victims Advocacy (OCVA)
• Washington State Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs (WCSAP)
• Community Sexual Assault Programs
• Community coalitions and stakeholders
• Other local, state, and national agencies