[1][2][3][4] Founded in 1975, PCAR works with a statewide network of 51 rape crisis centers serving all 67 counties across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to provide services to survivors of sexual violence.

[7] During the fall of 1975, PCAR and its supporters lobbied members of the Pennsylvania State Legislature to change procedures statewide for defining, managing and prosecuting rape cases.

Among the changes that were demanded:[8] On March 16, 1976, PCAR joined with women's groups statewide to hold a lobby day at the Pennsylvania State Capitol when legislation prohibiting the introduction of victims' sexual histories into court cases was delayed by legislators attempting to weaken proposed changes by continuing to allow the introduction of sexual history information in statutory rape cases that involved victims who were aged sixteen or younger.

[9][10] In November 1978, PCAR executive director Sandra Lambert praised U.S. President Jimmy Carter for signing the Rape Victim Act into law on October 30 of that year.

The federal law, which followed Pennsylvania's groundbreaking passage of Act 53 in 1976 to improve legal protections for rape survivors, was designed to reduce the introduction of testimony in future rape trials across the United States regarding survivors' past sexual histories by requiring that any such proposed testimony would be submitted to presiding judges in private hearings to determine whether or not it was directly related to the defense of alleged offenders and appropriate for trial use.

[13] In December of that same year, the Pennsylvania House's Judiciary Committee voted 14-3 in favor of legislation that would strip husbands of the "right to use marriage as a defense against sexual assault charges."

[16][17][18][19][20] From 2009 to October 1, 2015, PCAR founded and provided financial management services for AEquitas, which supported prosecutors working on human trafficking and gender-based violence cases worldwide.