Reunion Online

Massachusetts is moving forward with an $8 million investment to test all rape kits in police custody following the passage of last year’s criminal justice bill, which included significant measures in rape kit reform.

The passage of the state’s budget bill means that Massachusetts has now enacted all six pillars of reform recommended by the Joyful Heart Foundation.

Eleven thousand untested rape kits were found in an abandoned warehouse near Detroit in 2009. For years since, local officials nationwide have been working to get the funding to test their own backlog of untested kits.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has been trying to help other jurisdictions that face their own backlogs, doling out $38 million nationwide over the course of three years to pay for kits to be tested and criminals brought to justice.

North Carolina has the highest number of untested rape kits of any state, but a recent call from N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein for funding to test the kits might change that. 

“What we have found through communities that have taken a lot of the old untested kits off the shelves and tested them is that serial offenders have been left free to remain on the streets and commit crimes over and over again,” said Ilse Knecht, director of policy and advocacy for The Joyful Heart Foundation

Sexual assault changes a person’s view of self, especially their body, and a rape kit becomes an extended vestige of a survivor’s own body—at great personal cost.

The Joyful Heart Foundation pushes for more funding to labs and for state regulations requiring responsibility for testing kits; it fostered a massive push to get all rape kits tested, even those dating back to the 80’s.

The Washington attorney general said Tuesday he will notify every law enforcement agency in his state and direct them to ensure that rape kits are not being inappropriately destroyed. His action comes in response to a CNN investigation into the destruction of rape kits nationwide and on the heels of a Missouri police chief's apology to victims.

Much has been written this year about women's anger -- its power and potential, its evolution and necessity. But beneath the analysis, there is the feeling itself: anger, pure and simple. It's what I felt when I read CNN's report about the destruction -- the outrageous, careless, wrongheaded, uneducated, ill-informed, dangerous, willful destruction -- of rape kits.

Sarah Parsons is ready to move forward, to endure a criminal case against the man she said sexually assaulted her, to begin closing a difficult chapter.

But she is waiting on one thing. The evidence collected last year in the emergency room of a Chicago hospital, known as a rape kit, hasn’t yet been analyzed. An attorney advised waiting; the results would likely bolster the case.

A backlog of untested rape kits has many states scrambling to process the DNA evidence to help track down sexual predators whose crimes may have gone unpunished.

In Massachusetts, it’s not clear how many untested rape kits exist. State officials are planning to survey local police to get a handle on the scope of the problem.

Domestic violence can take the form of physical, psychological, or economic abuse, and it is a national issue that affects people of all ages and genders, though the majority of victims are women. Survivors do not report abuse for many reasons, including fear of gaslighting. Despite years of progress, domestic violence remains a silent epidemic. 

NEW YORK — Mariska Hargitay thinks Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has played a huge role in educating people on sexual violence, but believes there is still a lot of work to do.

The star of the TV drama spoke as the NBC show celebrated its 20th season Thursday at the Tribeca TV Festival.