Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape has to get people talking about things they'd rather ignore.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

FS: Do shows such as “Law & Order: SVU” or high-profile real-life cases help or hurt your efforts?
DR: Clearly from one perspective, shows that address rape and sexual assault create much-needed awareness of sexual violence and its prevalence, not to mention the legal complexities that surround these cases. Conversely, the down side of these programs is that they are perceived as fictionalized dramas that are developed to entertain and, in turn, viewers take themselves “off the hook” for any accountability.