Two innovative and successful programs that are designed to assist adult victims of sexual assault; Sexual Assault Response Teams (SART) and the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), are presently operational in several counties in New Jersey and are under development in Passaic County.

The SART/SANE programs utilize a victim-centered approach to sexual assault cases. The programs, which dramatically improve community response to sexual assault, offer immediate and effective support and counseling to rape victims by specially trained rape advocates, nurses and police officers. The programs have also been proven to provide highly reliable evidence to maintain aggressive prosecution of sexual assault cases.

When a rape victim reports, a SART Team, consisting of a police officer, a victim advocate and a SANE nurse, who is a registered nurse with specialized training, respond to assist the victim. The victim is interviewed by the police officer, afforded counseling, advice and social services by the victim advocate, and forensic evidence is obtained by the SANE nurse in an effective and sensitive manner. These teams are on-call 24-hours a day. A SANE Coordinator for the county, who must be a SANE nurse, coordinates the program by setting up the on-call rosters and serving as the clinical supervisor for the SANE nurses. The Coordinator also conducts training of police, educates the public and may perform the forensic examinations during the day.

On May 4, 2001, Assembly Bill 2083 was signed into law, providing for the establishment of a statewide SANE program and requiring each county prosecutor to appoint or designate a certified sexual assault nurse examiner to serve as program coordinator for that county. The standards for the programs are outlined in "The Standards for Providing Services to Survivors of Sexual Assault", which were promulgated by the Attorney General’s Office in August of 1998.

The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office received a grant from the State Office of Victim Witness Advocacy to hire a part-time coordinator and develop and maintain a SANE program in the county.