Joyful Heart in the News

The massive national backlog of rape kits is being targeted by Manhattan’s district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr. According to Vance, there is a backlog of “hundreds of thousands of rape kits” across the country in police warehouses. His office, which has long been a leader in processing untested kits, has pledged $35 million in national funding toward eliminating that backlog.

“It’s an insult,” said Vance during a Tuesday interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “Women who are typically sexually assaulted have to go through this invasive testing procedure and then nothing is done with the kits to find the perpetrator.”

The money will go toward processing untested rape kits and accurately tabulate existing backlogs in individual jurisdictions when they apply for funding through Vance’s office. It will also go toward creating national data and information-sharing systems.

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