Reunion Online

States across the country are proposing and enacting legislation to tackle the estimated 400,000 untested rape kits nationwide.

Every year, thousands of individuals take the courageous step of reporting their rape to the police.

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.

NEW YORK - The United States leads the world in the use of rape kits to gather DNA and forensic evidence from victims of sexual assault, but hundreds of thousands of those kits remain untested, some for years, according to researchers.

The end of a year inspires bold predictions for the next one. At the end of this year, I am predicting that 2011 will be a year of unprecedented reform of the backlog of untested rape kits in the United State

A new kit for collecting forensic evidence from rape victims will be unveiled today - the first revamping of the crucial tool in 20 years.