Reunion Online

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.

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.

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.

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.

Locally and nationally recognized musicians, television personalities, athletes, cultural practitioners, and community leaders have joined forces launched a campaign today to raise much-needed visibility and awareness about the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault across the state in a dramatic new series of public service announcements released today by the Joyful Heart Foundation.

Student Health and Wellness Programs at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is among six organizations selected to join the Joyful Heart Foundation’s “Heal the Healers Hawaiʻi” project.

The initiative, funded by the Atherton Family Foundation, supports a series of training and technical assistance sessions to train and support staff working with students who have experienced trauma.

Friends of Mariska Hargitay teamed up for a new series of sexual assualt PSAs for her Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization committed to “transforming society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.”

The 15 to 30 second clips feature celebrities, including former Law and Order: SVU co-star Chris Meloni, Quantico actor Blair Underwood, The OC star Tate Donovan, musician/actor Nick Lachey, Broadway's Andrew Rannells, and others reciting some of the most commonly used defenses that enforce societal norms about sexual assault.

In the wake of recent discussions from the political campaigns about the conduct and language around sexual assault, a group of celebrity men are challenging the notion that "boys will be boys" in a series of public service announcements.

"Law & Order: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay directed the 15- and 30-second spots that feature an all-male cast, including Andre Braugher, Anthony Edwards, Blair Underwood, Chris Meloni, Daniel Dae Kim, Dave Navarro, Ice-T, Nick Lachey, Raul Esparza and Tate Donovan.

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.

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.