Reunion Online

The Law & Order: SVU star speaks out about the rights of rape victims and what she's learned from Olivia Benson.

The season premiere of NBC's "Law and Order SVU" tackled the ongoing problem of backlogged rape kits sitting untested in police warehouses... delaying the prosecution of rape suspects. It was a problem brought to life in Los Angeles in 2009 and now actress Mariska Hargitay has started a foundation to help raise awareness and funds to get those rape kits tested.

By failing to test rape kits, we are telling victims that pursuing justice doesn't matter, that convicting violent perpetrators and taking them off our streets is not a top priority.

Law & Order star Mariska Hargitay had a sort of revelation while visiting Hawaii, and since then has been dedicated to helping abuse victims.

Almost a year ago, CBS News broadcast a two part series on a five month investigation into tens of thousands of untested rape kits nationwide.

For the last 11 years I've been on every case, sitting on every jury and hanging on every "dun dun" that "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" has to offer. But beyond implementing the law and keeping the order, it's the relationship between detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler that has planted "SVU" on the TV landscape.

This week, Valerie Neumann, a rape victim who was profiled in a CBS News investigation into the national rape kit backlog, is pounding the halls of Congress asking dozens of lawmakers to support legislation that will require DNA from all rape kits to be tested.

Interview with Mariska Hargitay for More Magazine

Caring for and collecting evidence from survivors of sexual assault takes a special mix of compassion and technical expertise.

Two decades after their first use in New York emergency rooms, rape testing kits are being updated for the DNA age.