Media Archive by Topic: rape kit backlog

Publication	Title
	Jefferson County to test backlogged rape kits with new $1.5 million grant July 20, 2017 • AL.com Ivana Hrynkiw The Jefferson County District Attorney's Office doesn't know how many untested rape kits they have-- but they plan to find out, and test them all. According to information from the district attorney's office, there have been more than 27,000 rapes in Alabama in the past 19 years. Of those, 21 percent took place in Jefferson County. read more
	Law: North Carolina police must inventory untested rape kits June 29, 2017 • Associated Press Christina Sandidge No one knows how many untested rape kits have been shelved by local police departments throughout North Carolina, leaving victims to wonder if their cases will ever be solved, and leaving perpetrators free to strike again. A new law aims to change that by year's end. The state budget, enacted this week following a veto override, requires that local law enforcement agencies take inventory of the kits they have and report their findings to the State Crime Lab by January 1. read more
	30 years after assault, Michelle Bowdler discovered her rapists' DNA was never tested July 11, 2017 • MassLive Melissa Hanson Michelle Bowdler will never know the identities of the two men who broke into her Boston apartment and raped her more than 30 years ago, even though they may have left crucial DNA evidence behind. read more
	'Law and Order' Star Testifies About Rape Kits, Sexual Violence to Congress June 16, 2017 • NBC New York NBC New York Mariska Hargitay, who plays the tough, dogged lead on "Law & Order: SVU," testified on behalf of real-life rape survivors Friday in front of a task force on sexual violence in the Capitol. read more
	How Can We Solve America's Backlogged Rape Kit Problem? May 11, 2017 • Glamour Cady Drell Someone is sexually assaulted every two minutes in the United States. That's a number big and scary enough that you'd think it would be a compelling argument for doing something about it, and yet sexual assault cases rarely even go to trial, let alone lead to a conviction. One part of the problem: It's estimated that 175,000 sexual assault evidence kits — often referred to as "rape kits" — remain untested in evidence storage facilities around the country. read more
	Mariska Hargitay’s Doc ‘I Am Evidence’ Is An Eye-Opening Look At The Rape Kit Backlog May 2, 2017 • The Huffington Post Stephanie Marcus If you were to watch almost any episode of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” it’s likely that some form of sexual assault would take place, the victim would be given a rape kit at the hospital, and the dedicated detectives investigating would send the kit off to be tested for DNA evidence. read more
	How Mariska Hargitay's 'Law & Order' Role Spurred HBO's Sexual Assault Doc April 24, 2017 • The Hollywood Reporter Ashley Lee After 18 years of starring in Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay is taking on sexual assault offscreen. The star of NBC’s long-running procedural series is a producer of I Am Evidence, a new documentary highlighting the hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits in the United States. The dormant status of these kits, some of which have been left in police evidence storage rooms for decades, mirrors the pattern of how the criminal justice system has historically treated sexual assault victims. Meanwhile, perpetrators are never held accountable for their crimes. read more
	Eagle Club Indoor Golf Raises More Than $10K For Actress Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation April 11, 2017 • Patch Nikki Gaskins SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—Eagle Club Indoor Golf is excited to announce the recent success of its first ever “Drive-A-Thon” fundraiser. On March 31st and April 1st, San Francisco’s #1 spot for indoor golf culminated its quarter long fundraising campaign with a drive-a-thon to benefit Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping sexual assault survivors heal and reclaim a sense of joy in their lives. The money raised—$10,200 total—will benefit the non-profit’s “End the Backlog” campaign. read more
	Assault survivors have waited too long March 4, 2017 • Albuquerque Journal Jayann Sepich and Ilse Knecht Every year, thousands of individuals who have been sexually assaulted take the step of reporting the crime to the police. They submit to an examination of their body and have evidence collected in a process that typically takes four to six hours. The evidence is saved in a “Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit” – a rape kit. DNA evidence is an invaluable investigative tool. When tested, communities can identify serial perpetrators, take dangerous offenders off the streets, exonerate the innocent and prevent future crimes. read more
	Editorial: A rape kit calamity February 20, 2017 • Savannah Morning News Savannah Morning News Joanie is a Missouri woman who was brutally raped in 1991 by a man she didn’t know and then was virtually ignored by the criminal justice system. Fortunately, her attacker was eventually caught and sent to prison, thanks to persistent officials in that state who made sure the rape kit taken after her attack was tested and the results shared. read more
	Let’s Talk About It: ‘Hundreds of thousands’ of rape kits are sitting on shelves January 9, 2017 • Ionia Sentinel-Standard DomesticShelters.org It was traumatic enough that in 1996, at just 17 years old, Helena was raped repeatedly by a stranger who approached her at a self-service car wash, pressing a knife to her throat before forcing her to drive to an abandoned truck yard. What followed was 13 years of being ignored by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. Her rape kit—collected the same day that her rapist assaulted her, held her hostage, then freed her after threatening to kill her family if she went to police—sat on a shelf somewhere gathering dust for over a decade. read more
	Attorney General's report calls for statewide standards on rape kits January 3, 2017 • The Baltimore Sun Alison Knezevich Police in Maryland should test nearly all rape kits, notify victims of the results and store the kits for a fixed period of time, Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh said. A report issued to lawmakers by Frosh's office Tuesday said a lack of statewide guidelines on when to test rape kits and how long to keep them has resulted in police departments adopting inconsistent policies. Some keep the kits indefinitely, but others throw them out. read more
	A flawed, inconsistent police response to sexual assault in Maryland December 3, 2016 • The Baltimore Sun Catherine Rentz and Alison Knezevich Catherine Becket hadn't forgotten that evening three years ago in her Parkville apartment, though she tried. Then, as she watched with outrage while Stanford University student Brock Turner served three months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, she resolved to confront her own memories. She called Baltimore County police this summer about reopening her sexual assault case. But she soon discovered that would be difficult. read more
	Feds Kick In $38M More to Fight Rape-Kit Backlog September 21, 2016 • Courthouse News Service Nick Divito Two years after shocking revelations about 70,000 rape kits that went unprocessed across the country for decades, the United States committed another $38 million on Monday to expand testing. read more
	SVU's Mariska Hargitay on Vice President Joe Biden's Guest Role and THAT Premiere Shocker September 21, 2016 • People Lanford Beard Mariska Hargitay has had to portray a lock of terrifying, disturbing scenarios in 17 seasons on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but the actress and mother of three was especially impacted by one shocking scene in the season 18 premiere. read more
	An Incomprehensible Failure September 20, 2016 • The Huffington Post Sarah Haacke Byrd Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice released its much-anticipated report about policing practices in Baltimore, Maryland. Included in their examination is scathing evidence that victims of sexual assault in the city are denied equal and full access to the law. read more
	A disturbing trend: evidence in rape cases often goes untested August 2016 • Seattle Magazine Elaine Porterfield The backlog of untested rape kits goes back years, and it's hindering the justice process. read more
	Ohio Supreme Court reverses decision in Cleveland rape kit case that drew national attention July 27, 2016 • Cleveland.com Rachel Dissell CLEVELAND, Ohio –The Ohio Supreme Court today unanimously reversed the decision of a Cleveland appeals court in a rape kit case being watched across the country. read more
	Inside the national effort to combat the rape kit backlog – and how Detroit Is leading the fight June 9, 2016 • People Diana Pearl After Natasha Alexenko was raped and robbed at gunpoint in New York City in 1993, her first instinct was to try to wash the experience off her. "It was an ordeal that changed my life forever," she says. "And your first instinct after you've been assaulted – at least mine – was to take a hot shower." .. read more
	Tempe sending around 500 sexual-assault kits, some dating to the early '90s, for testing June 8, 2016 • AZ Central Chris Coppola The kits are being tested because they never were submitted or need to be checked again with new methods. read more
	Advocates praise senate bill on sexual assault victims’ rights may 24, 2016 • The New York Times Emmarie Huetteman WASHINGTON — Advocates for victims of sexual assault on Tuesday praised the Senate’s unanimous approval of a bill that would establish a set of rights for victims, including the right to be informed of the results of forensic tests and to have evidence preserved. ... read more
	Key legislators approve amended version of bill to test rape kits April 30, 2016 • Honolulu Star Advertiser Sophie Cocke Hawaii’s police departments will likely be required to take action on hundreds of rape kits that have sat in storage facilities for years, as well as new rape kits, after key lawmakers Friday agreed to an amended version of House Bill 1907. The bill gained traction after the Honolulu Police Department revealed in February that it had 1,500 untested kits that contain forensic evidence from rape victims. The untested kits, which could help solve crimes and catch serial rapists, date back more than a decade. ... read more
	Victims' Group: SD Rape Kit Testing Law a Mixed Bag April 20, 2016 • Public News Service Brandon Campbell PIERRE, S.D. - South Dakota's new rape kit testing law is now in effect, but a sexual assault victims' group argues it may not go far enough to tackle the state's backlog. ... read more
	New celebrity PSAs address myth, societal attitudes that confront male survivors of childhood sexual abuse March 7, 2016 • Honolulu Star Advertiser Sophie Cocke Joyful Heart and 1in6 are proud to share a new series in Joyful Heart’s groundbreaking, celebrity-driven NO MORE PSA campaign to address the myths and excuses surrounding males who have experienced childhood sexual abuse, and to invite male survivors to seek help at 1in6.org. The PSAs were created in partnership with Viacom, directed by Joyful Heart’s Founder & President, actress and advocate Mariska Hargitay, developed in partnership with Y&R, Executive Creative Director/Writer, Rachel Howald, and photographed by world-renowned celebrity photographer Timothy White. read more
	Ohio tests 10,000 rape kits to clear backlogs, hundreds indicted February 18, 2016 • Reuters Kim Palmer An effort Ohio launched about five years ago to manage its backlog of rape kits has resulted in more than 10,000 tests to recover physical evidence and led to at least 445 indictments, the state Attorney General's office said on Thursday. "This is a tremendous milestone," Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said. "The testing of these 10,000 kits has helped identify hundreds of alleged assailants, many of whom repeatedly committed violent attacks." ... read more