Reunion Online

Evidence relating to thousands of rape cases has been neglected for years in the US. Now 'the toughest woman in Detroit' is determined to do something about it.

Every year, thousands of individuals take the courageous step of reporting their rape to the police. They overcome the terrible, misplaced social stigma of being the victim of sexual violence, they overcome the warnings sometimes uttered by the rapist to keep silent, they overcome the suggestions that these issues ought not to be spoken of, and they speak up.

Last year, a FedEx delivery truck arrived at the Detroit Police Department storage facility to pick up the first batch of untested rape kits bound, finally, for crime labs. Thus began Detroit’s massive task of processing its rape kit backlog – the more than 11,000 kits that were left behind to languish in a police warehouse, some for more than two decades.

Mariska Hargitay sits down with George Stephanopoulos and Hamptons Magazine to discuss how her role on the hit NBC series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has influenced her life over the past 14 years.

Emmy-award winning actress Mariska Hargitay stops to talk to Julie Moran on the red carpet at the gala for her Joyful Heart Foundation. Hollywood Watch was there to capture all the star studded support.

With Wednesday’s announcement that the State of Michigan may provide $4 million in funding to help test old rape kit evidence in Detroit, Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette made it clear that preventing and prosecuting sexual assaults in Detroit is a priority.

Despite the progress we as a nation have made in the movement to end sexual violence, including the recent passage of a more inclusive Violence Against Women Act, much work remains to be done.

The Joyful Heart Foundation Gala 2013 was held on 42nd Street in New York City on Thursday evening, May 9th. The event was sponsored by a number of well-known companies including Pepsi Cola Company, Michael Stars, Verizon Communications, The Art of Grace, and Wolf Films among many others. The founder, Mariska Hargitay, was joined at the event by her husband, Peter Hermann, and a number of celebrities including Danny Pino, Mary J. Blige, Jemima Kirke, Will Chase, Julianne Hough, Christopher Meloni, Uma Thurman, Mary Louise Parker, Glenn Close, and Harry Connick Jr. just to name a few.

Jemima Kirke attends the Joyful Heart Foundation Gala.