Free, Confidential, 24/7 Sexual Violence Support Services 908-233-7273
Legal Rights and Options
Survivors of sexual violence have important legal rights and protections
Free, confidential help is available right now: call or text 908-233-7273, any hour, any day. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, in emotional distress, or need immediate mental health crisis support, call or text 988 any time.
What are my rights as a survivor in New Jersey?
You have rights here, whether or not you’ve reported anything to anyone. In general terms, New Jersey law gives survivors the right to medical care, to a forensic exam, to confidential advocacy, to be treated with dignity by the people and systems you deal with, and to decide for yourself whether to report to police. You don’t lose these rights by waiting, by being unsure, or by choosing not to report.
The sections below this one go into more detail on protective orders, financial assistance, and reporting options. This page is written to give you a general picture. It is not legal advice, and it can’t replace a conversation with an advocate or an attorney about your specific situation. Specifics change. An advocate can help you sort out what applies to you right now.
Do I have to report to police to have rights, or to get help?
Whether to report to law enforcement is your choice. You can get medical care, have a forensic exam, and talk with a confidential advocate without making a police report. Some legal or financial options have their own eligibility rules, and an advocate can help you understand those without pressuring you toward any path. If you decide later that you want to report, that door doesn’t close just because time has passed.
Can I get a protective order without filing a criminal complaint?
New Jersey’s Victim’s Assistance and Survivor Protection Act, often called VASPA, allows eligible survivors to seek a civil protective order without reporting to law enforcement or filing a criminal complaint. VASPA expanded the earlier Sexual Assault Survivor Protection Act, sometimes called SASPA. NJCASA (njcasa.org) has detailed, current information on how this works and who qualifies, and an advocate here can help you understand whether this option fits your situation.
Is there financial help if I need medical care, counseling, or lost wages covered?
New Jersey’s Victims of Crime Compensation Office may help eligible survivors with costs such as medical care, counseling, relocation, and lost income. Eligibility rules can include reporting and application requirements, with exceptions possible in some circumstances. Rather than list specifics here that could be outdated by the time you read them, we’d rather point you to their office directly, or have an advocate walk you through the current process with you.
What if this happened years ago? Do I still have options?
Often, yes. Some New Jersey criminal and civil time limits for sexual violence have changed, and the rules can depend on the type of harm, your age when it happened, when it occurred, and other facts. Don’t assume too much time has passed to matter — it’s worth a conversation with an advocate or attorney first. That conversation costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.
Do I need a lawyer to understand any of this?
Not to start. An advocate can explain your general rights and options in plain language, free of charge, and help you figure out if and when talking to an attorney makes sense for you.
Is a criminal case the only path to justice?
No. Justice looks different for different people, and there’s no single right version of it. For some survivors, that’s a police report and a criminal case. For others, it’s a protective order, a civil claim, financial compensation, or simply getting support and moving forward on their own terms, with none of the above. All of these are legitimate. None of them is the “correct” choice you’re supposed to make. An advocate can walk through what each path would actually involve for you, without steering you toward one over another.
Survivor Rights
Survivors have the right to:
Receive medical care after an assault
Have a sexual assault forensic exam performed
Speak with a confidential advocate
Receive information about services and resources
Decide whether or not to report to law enforcement
Be treated with dignity and respect throughout the process
Protective Orders
New Jersey law allows survivors to request a civil protective order against the person who harmed them, even if they were not in a domestic relationship.
Protective orders may require the offender to:
Stop contacting the survivor
Stay away from the survivor's home or workplace
Avoid harassment or threats
Advocates can help survivors understand the process and provide support during court proceedings.
Support is here at every step.
Victims of Crime Compensation
Survivors may qualify for financial assistance through the Victims of Crime Compensation Office.
Compensation may help cover expenses such as:
Medical care
Counseling services
Relocation costs
Lost wages
Advocates can assist survivors with the application process. You can find information here: njoag.gov/vcco
Know Your Rights: The Details
~Confidentiality and Mandatory Reporting
What a survivor shares with a CSVA is confidential with a few exceptions: if there is a disclosure of child abuse by a family member or caretaker, if there is a disclosure of the abuse of a vulnerable adult (which is a person over the age of 18 that lacks the ability to care for themselves), or if there is a clear threat to harm themselves or another person. By law, the CSVA is required to breach confidentiality and report these incidents to the proper authorities.
~Survivors Reporting to Law Enforcement
The decision to report the sexual assault is completely up to the survivor.
Here at Karolina’s Place, we believe in empowering survivors to find their voices and regain control of their lives. While it is true that the sooner law enforcement is able to begin investigating, the better the chances are of gathering evidence, we would NEVER force anyone to go through any part of the process they were not ready for. The survivor still has the right to have the Sexual Assault Forensic Exam (SAFE) done, even if they choose not to report. This is called the “Jane Doe” or “John Doe” option.
~Jane/John Doe
Choosing to go Jane or John Doe enables a victim to have forensic evidence collected without reporting to law enforcement officers. Upon completion of the exam, survivors are provided with a code number they can use to identify themselves with should they choose to report at a later date. If the survivor is:
- Under the age of eighteen (18), they have up to twenty (20) years after their 18th birthday;
- Eighteen (18) years of age and over, the kit is held for twenty (20) years.
limitations for sexual assault. NJCASA | The New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault. https://njcasa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Civil-Statute-of-Limitations.pdf
The Official Web Site for The State of New Jersey. https://www.nj.gov/oag/njvictims/pdfs/Civil-Sexual-Assault-Statute-of-Limitations-One-Pager.pdf
~New Jersey’s Statewide Tracking System
New Jersey launched a statewide tracking system called Track-Kit on July 30, 2025. If you had a Sexual Assault Forensic Exam (SAFE), you can follow your kit yourself — where it is and what stage it is at, from collection through lab analysis to storage — without having to call the police or anyone else to ask.
~What You Can See
The portal shows your kit’s location and status at each stage. You will also be told when something changes in your case, including whether a DNA profile was developed, entered into a database, or matched. These notification rights are written into New Jersey law.
~Your Privacy Is Protected
You do not need to give your name to check on your kit, and checking does not commit you to making a police report. If your kit was collected anonymously as a Jane or John Doe kit, you can still track it using the kit number alone.
~How to Get Access
Your kit’s tracking number and portal information are given to you at the time of your exam. If your exam happened before the system launched, or you have lost your paperwork, the hospital or forensic nurse program that collected your kit can help you get access. You can also call our 24/7 hotline at 908-233-7273 and an advocate will help you navigate it — you never have to do this alone.
References
New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. (2025). Attorney General Platkin announces launch of tracking system for sexual assault forensic exams. https://www.njoag.gov/attorney-general-platkin-announces-launch-of-tracking-system-for-sexual-assault-forensic-exams/
State of New Jersey, Office of the Governor. (2025). Governor Murphy signs legislation (S715/A908) establishing a statewide tracking system for sexual assault forensic evidence kits. https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562025/20250123a.shtml
“Jane Doe” and “John Doe” are not only names for anonymous forensic kits. Courts also use them so that a survivor’s real name stays out of public view during legal proceedings.
~If You Were Under 18 When It Happened
New Jersey law gives especially strong protection to survivors who were under 18 at the time of the offense. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:82-46, your name, address, and identity may not appear in public indictments, complaints, or other public court records — initials or a fictitious name must be used instead. Records that do contain your identity are confidential and kept from the public unless a judge finds good cause to release them after a hearing where you get notice. Purposely releasing a survivor’s protected information is itself an offense under the statute.
~If You Were an Adult
Adult survivors can ask the court for permission to proceed under a pseudonym in a civil case. It is not automatic — it is requested by motion and decided case by case — but a confidential advocate or an attorney can walk you through what is realistic in your situation. Call 908-233-7273 any time to talk it through.
References
N.J.S.A. 2A:82-46. Confidentiality of identity of victim under age 18. https://law.justia.com/codes/new-jersey/title-2a/section-2a-82-46/
Whether a deadline applies does not depend on how you describe what happened to you — it depends on the specific offense a prosecutor believes the evidence supports. Here is how New Jersey’s deadlines break down:
| Possible charge | Deadline to file criminal charges |
|---|---|
| Sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault (N.J.S.A. 2C:14-2) | None. These charges can be brought at any time, no matter how long ago the offense occurred. |
| Criminal sexual contact or aggravated criminal sexual contact, adult survivor (N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3) | Generally 5 years after the offense. |
| Criminal sexual contact or endangering the welfare of a child, when the survivor was under 18 (N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3, 2C:24-4) | 5 years after the survivor turns 18, or 2 years after the survivor discovers the offense — whichever is later. |
Three things worth knowing alongside that table. The 20-year kit retention rule is about preserving evidence, not a deadline to press charges — those are separate clocks. There is never a deadline to seek medical care, talk with an advocate, or ask about your kit. And even where a deadline could apply to a lesser charge, a kit can still matter: it can help investigators assess whether the evidence supports a charge that has no time limit at all.
References
N.J.S.A. 2C:1-6. Time limitations. https://law.justia.com/codes/new-jersey/title-2c/section-2c-1-6/
New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault. (2023). Attorney General law enforcement directive expands evidence retention for SAFE kits. https://njcasa.org/attorney-general-law-enforcement-directive-expands-evidence-retention-and-revises-guidelines-procedures-for-retaining-safe-kits/
RAINN. (n.d.). New Jersey statutes of limitation for sexual assault crimes. https://apps.rainn.org/policy/policy-crime-definitions-export.cfm?state=New%20Jersey&group=7
- Choose whether to report to law enforcement.
- Be free from any suggestion that they must report the crime to have their rights guaranteed.
- Be free from any suggestion that victims should refrain from reporting crimes in order to avoid unwanted personal publicity.
- Have their report of sexual assault treated seriously.
- Existing medical, counseling, mental health, or other services available for victims of sexual assault, whether or not the crime is reported to law enforcement.
- Treatment and interviews provided in a language in which the victim is fluent.
- Assistive devices to accommodate disabilities that the victim may have.
- Testing for HIV or any other sexually transmitted infections and assistance with compelling and disclosing the results of testing for a communicable disease from the person who caused harm.
- Evidence collection and preservation. Evidence collection is time sensitive and should occur within seven days of the assault. Survivors can choose to have evidence collected whether or not they pursue a criminal case. All forensic evidence is retained for a minimum of twenty years. If the survivor chooses to report to police, either at the time of collection or later, they can request information on the status of the evidence.
- Financial compensation. The Victims of Crime Compensation Office (VCCO) offers assistance with accessing compensation for expenses that occurred as a result of an assault, including the cost of mental health counseling, medical bills, relocation, and loss of earnings. Survivors can reach the VCCO at (877) 658-2221 or http://www.NJVictims.org.
- A civil protective order. Under the Sexual Assault Survivor Protection Act of 2015, survivors can seek a civil protective order against the person who caused them harm if there is risk of further harm.
- The no-cost services of a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), if the survivor is over the age of 13. A SART is comprised of a Confidential Sexual Violence Advocate (CSVA), a Law Enforcement Officer (LEO), and a Forensic Nurse Examiner (FNE).
The survivor can choose to work with one, two, or all three of the SART members.
- Limit the contact of the alleged actor with the victim
- Prohibit the respondent from committing or attempting to commit any future act of stalking or cyber-harassment
- Prohibit the respondent from having any contact with the alleged victim or others, including an order forbidding the respondent from personally or through an agent initiating any communication likely to cause annoyance or alarm including, but not limited to, personal, written, or telephone contact, or contact via electronic device.
- Prohibit the respondent from entering the residence, property, school or place of employment of the alleged victim or the alleged victim’s family or household members, and requiring the respondent to stay away form any specified place that is named in the order.
- Prohibit the respondent from following, harassing and threatening to harm, stalk, follow, or harass the victim
For many survivors, their experience lasts beyond the
assault itself. There are often fears that their assailant would one day return
and hurt them again in some way.
V.I.N.E. is a free confidential service that allows crime victims and other concerned citizens access to information regarding offenders. To register with the service, you will need one of the following:
- Offender Name & Date of Birth
- Offender SBI (State Bureau of Identification) number
- Release
- Transfer
- Escape
- Return from Escape
- Unsupervised Custody
- Out to Court
- DOC Parole Actions
- Death
Click HERE to learn more about the New Jersey V.I.N.E. Service.
- Crime is eligible under the statute.
- You are a resident of the State of New Jersey or the crime occurred in this State.
- You have compensable financial losses as a result of the criminal act.
- The crime was reported to law enforcement within 9 months, and you submitted this application within 5 years from the date of the crime. Consideration will be taken if “good cause” exists for delayed filing.
- You cooperated with police and prosecutor’s office. However, eligibility is not dependent upon conviction or prosecution of the offender.
- Insurance and other payment sources such as restitution paid by the offender will not cover the bills submitted.
- With the exception of homicide cases, you did not contribute to your injuries, provoke the incident, and were not responsible for or participated in the crime that caused your injuries.
- You do not have any outstanding VCCO assessments imposed for convictions.
- You do not have any outstanding warrants for indictable offenses or pending criminal charges in Superior Court.
- Law enforcement agencies
- Medical institutions
- Prosecutor’s office
You Are Not Alone
Confidential support is available 24 hours a day. Reach out whenever you are ready.
You don’t have to figure any of this out alone, and you don’t have to have your mind made up about anything to reach out. Call or text our 24 hour hotline at 908-233-7273 with a question, a maybe, or nothing decided at all. If you need to talk to someone about how you’re feeling right now, 988 is there too.
Contact us if you’d rather write than call, or visit our Sexual Violence Support page for more on what support here actually looks like.
For primary, up-to-date sources beyond what’s on this page: NJCASA (njcasa.org), the New Jersey Attorney General’s SART standards, and the Victims of Crime Compensation Office (njoag.gov/vcco/).