This is another in a series of articles on agencies that benefit from the United Way — editor.

LUMBERTON — Robeson County leads North Carolina in incidence of violent crime, and that is evident at the Robeson County Rape Crisis Center, where last year a small staff and volunteers helped 364 people cope with the physical and emotional trauma that follows sexual violence.

“We give people a safe place where they can talk about really pretty embarrassing and confusing stuff,” said Margaret Crites, director of the center. “We help restore dignity — that’s a big part of what’s taken away from them during the assault.”

Jessica Drake, prevention coordinator for the Robeson County Rape Crisis Center, said it is one of the busiest in North Carolina.

In the state Justice Department’s 2008 annual report, Robeson County had 946 violent crimes — including murder, rape and aggravated assault — per 100,000 people, the highest of the state’s 100 counties.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, only about 10 percent of rapes are reported. The center’s brochure says that while the incidence of sexual violence in Robeson County is one of the highest in the state, that also means people in the community report it and seek help.

“Because we’re a community agency and a reflection of the community’s interest, when we go to the ER or answer the phone in the middle of the night, it really is a reflection of a community that cares,” Crites said.

Since 1991, the Rape Crisis Center of Robeson County’s two staff members and 20 volunteers have served nearly 400 men, women and children each year, and about a quarter of those are under 18 years old, Crites said. The center has a 24-hour crisis hotline manned by trained volunteers, and provides victims with emergency room support, counseling, and therapy referrals.

The majority of the victims are women, and about half of those were sexually abused as children, Crites said.

“Males are victims too, and over the past few years we’ve seen increasing numbers of men coming for services,” she said. “They used to be an extreme rarity, and now we get two or three per year.”

The nonprofit offers its services for free. It is supported by federal, state and local grants, as well as private donations and money from foundations like the United Way of Robeson County. It is not affiliated with any other rape crisis centers, but works closely with other local agencies, like the Southeastern Family Violence Center.

Crites said many of the people who seek services come months or years after the abuse. In those cases the center gives victims someone to talk to, or refers them to counseling or therapy.

“The longer you keep a secret, the harder it is to talk about it,” Crites said.

Male victims in particular tend to wait for years before they talk about the crime, Crites said. She said that when men are victimized, it’s usually perpetrated by another man, and there’s typically more violence than when a woman is victimized.

“Often, there is more than one assailant,” Crites said. “It’s an issue of beating down somebody or establishing a hierarchy. But there’s an extreme level of the power and control exerted over women during violent assaults.”

The center doesn’t have any male volunteers, but she said masculinity issues mean most men are more comfortable talking to women providers.

When volunteers at the center answer crisis calls from people who were recently assaulted, they take them to the emergency room, talk to them about their options, and help them make informed decisions, Crites said.

“We approach each victim as an individual. Each victim we see will have their own needs, their own coping mechanisms in place,” Crites said. “Some people just need information so they can make an informed decision, some people just need someone to listen to them, and some people need to go to counseling.”

The nature of the center’s client services means volunteers rarely see the long-term results of their services, Crites said. But a few years ago, she heard from a former client.

“I got a phone call from a woman who no longer lived in the community and worked as a trainer for social workers. She called to say thank you for the services we provided to her when she was a teenager,” Crites said. “She was sexually abused as a teenager, and there were custody issues and such, and she would talk to me regularly about it.

“Years later she was able to call and say that a lot of things we said to her as a teenager had helped her make smarter decisions for herself.

“Now she’s someone who used childhood experiences to put herself in the position to help children who were also abused.”

The center’s reach extends beyond victims, with classes on rape awareness and prevention.

Since the Centers for Disease Control deemed rape a preventative injury, it has provided $42 million each year to fund rape prevention programs nationwide. Drake teaches those classes to address the local sexual violence problem. In particular, she works to debunk rape myths.

“It’s something we’re still working on,” Drake said. “It’s about how we view women in society.

“Equate it to 30 years ago: It was a cultural shift to say (rape) is not right,” she said. “It’s like pregnant women and smoking. It’s taken years and years to make the cultural shift to say it’s not OK to smoke when you’re pregnant.”

She said programs address specifically how men view women and how genders interact in society.

“Do they blame the victim? Do they view women as sex objects or as not equal? We have to change the mindset, change the way people interact with other people,” Drake said.

Rape is escalating around the world, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, and agencies like the World Health Organization and the United Nations have adopted similar education and awareness programs to help deter rape in war-torn and patriarchal societies.

In Robeson County, Crites remains optimistic.

“We’re exposed to a lot of crappy things people do to each other, but for every victim in the ER, we’ve got a complete stranger getting out of bed to go help somebody,” Crites said. “So for all the icky stuff, you’ve got a tremendous generosity from a complete stranger.”

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— The Robeson County Rape Crisis Center serves nearly 400 clients per year.

— Twenty-five percent of those clients are under 18 years old.

— Only 10 percent of rapes are reported.

— 946 violent crimes per 100,000 people were committed last year — the highest rate in the state.