- Get to a safe place immediately. After experiencing a traumatizing event such as rape, it is important to find a place where you feel comfortable and safe from harm.
- Call someone who can be with you. Having someone with you whom you trust, can make the situation a lot easier to deal with.
- Preserve all physical evidence. If possible do not bathe, shower, douche, eat, drink, smoke, urinate, brush your teeth, or change your clothes. Do not disturb anything in the area where the assault occurred. You may destroy evidence. If you have changed your clothes, take the clothes you were wearing at the time of the rape to the hospital in a paper bag. (Plastic may destroy important evidence.) If you must urinate, do so in a container and take the sample with you.
- Tell your parents. Having a person with you will make telling your parents a lot easier, but it is important that they know, so you and them together can decide what steps should be taken.
- Call the police as soon as possible. By calling the police, you are reporting the crime that was committed against you as well as seeking the protection of the police.
- Seek medical attention. You may have sustained injuries from the attack or contracted a sexually transmitted disease.
- Write down as much as you can remember about the assailant and the assault. If you decide to report or press charges, you will have the details to give the police.
- Seek counseling. Whether or not you report the assault or prosecute, a trained counselor can help you process the emotional trauma of an assault.
- You may pursue civil action against your assailant in a public court of law.
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