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Team Coordinator Sarah Brogan, R.N., holds a Physical Evidence Recovery Kit at Â鶹ÊÓƵ CarePlex Hospital.

The hardest decision for many survivors of domestic violence is whether to call the police. Fear of reprisal often plays a role. A new law in Virginia allows survivors to preserve evidence of their assaults until they are ready to see their attackers in court.

“So many survivors are afraid to prosecute,” said Sarah Brogan, R.N., team coordinator for the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Peninsula Forensic Nurse Examiners at Â鶹ÊÓƵ CarePlex Hospital in Hampton, Virginia.

“Restraining orders don’t always prevent situations from getting worse,” she added.

The new law lets Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s team gather the physical and photographic evidence of assault and strangulation and send it to the state forensic lab without a police case number attached.

“That’s the big change,” Brogan said. “Survivors no longer have to call the police while they’re still being seen in the ER. It gives survivors time to consider their options and decide when, and if, to call the police. When they do make the decision to prosecute, evidence of the crime will be there, even though wounds and bruises may have healed.”

Protocols for executing this new policy are being developed at the state level.

As one example, Newport News experienced 833 aggravated assaults in 2024. Almost 90% of those assaults involved intimate partners. Twenty percent of those cases involved manual strangulation. So far, in 2025, 85% of aggravated assaults in Newport News involve intimate partners and almost 31% of those involve strangulation, which leaves DNA and visible evidence of bruising that can be photographed and saved with an evidence kit.

Â鶹ÊÓƵ hospitals are among several on the Virginia Peninsula that provide forensic nursing services to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

All Â鶹ÊÓƵ forensic nurse examiners receive specialized training and complete annual education though the International Association of Forensic Nurses.

The mission of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Peninsula Forensic Nurse Examiners program is to assist survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. Services include confidential, dignified evidence gathering while preventing immediate harm, crisis intervention, preventive treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, pregnancy prevention and referrals to follow-up medical care.

According to the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), there were approximately 120 practicing forensic nurses in Virginia in 2022. They are required to report annually to the Virginia Department of Health and DCJS on multiple data points such as Physical Evidence Recovery Kits offered and collected from survivors, strangulation exams offered and collected, and other information related to domestic violence, human trafficking, and elder abuse.

In 2021, through a partnership with Â鶹ÊÓƵ Williamsburg Regional Medical Center, forensic services were expanded to include human trafficking and elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Â鶹ÊÓƵ hospitals in south Hampton Roads call a nursing agency specializing in responding to hospitals for cases of sexual and domestic assault.

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