Friday, July 09, 2010
(graphic-Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault)
Law enforcement officials in the state of Illinois have failed to test as many as 80% of rape kits collected from women who’ve been assaulted since 1995, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.
The human rights group gathered testing data from nearly half of all jurisdictions in Illinois and discovered that only 1,474 out of 7,494 rape kits compiled over the last 15 years had been tested.
Not surprisingly, the state has one of the lowest arrest rates in the country for sexual assault—11% compared to the national average of 22%.
Illinois leaders are hoping a new law will turn things around. The law makes Illinois the first state to require police to track the processing of rape kits, which must be sent to labs for testing within 10 days. But the 10-day deadline can slide if sufficient staffing and resources are not available.
A rape kit contains all of the evidence collected during an examination of a victim. This may include semen, saliva, fingernail scrapings, pubic hair combings, urine, blood and photographs of the victim’s body.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
US: Most Rape Kits Never Tested in Illinois (Human Rights Watch)
“I Used to Think the Law Would Protect Me” (Human Rights Watch) (pdf)
Murder and Rape DNA Test Backlog Hits 350,000 (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov )
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