Joyful Heart in the News

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.

Ilse Knecht, the director of policy and advocacy at Mariska Hargitay's group, the Joyful Heart Foundation, called for all legislators to “see sexual violence as the violent crime that it is.”