Rural Women Often Have to Travel Hours for Rape Kits (If They Can Get One at All)

In a recent study of six states, the Government Accountability Office found that rape victims in rural areas often have little to no access to forensic examiners who are trained in collecting and analyzing DNA (i.e. performing rape kits) immediately following a sexual assault.
Idaho Sheriff: No Need for Rape Kits, Since Most Rape Accusations Are False
Welcome to Big Time Small-Time Dicks, a regular column on The Slot that explores local politicians, small-town scandals, and everything else making life miserable on a local level. Know a small time person who is a big time dick we should feature? Email us.
Lawmakers Push to Figure Out Why So Many Rape Kits Go Untested
For years, we’ve been hearing about a backlog of rape kits plaguing cities—in January 2011, the Los Angeles Police Department made its way through over 6,000 untested kits; in 2013, Memphis, Tennessee somehow lost almost 15,000 kits; multimillion dollar budgets have been put toward ameliorating the backlog in cities…
Nearly $80 Million Will Be Used to Finally Test Thousands of Rape Kits
Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Loretta Lynch were in New York Thursday to announce that the White House has awarded $41 million in new rape kit testing grants to police departments across the country, added to the $38 million in grant money that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance already contributed.…
Despite Funding, Rape Kits Still Remain Untested
The revelation that untested rape kits have been sitting around in law enforcement agencies across the country is something that has been discussed numerous times over the past decade. Earlier this year, there was hope that the backlog of these kits was decreasing. In March, Vice President Joe Biden supported a $41…
Cities Are Finally Getting Around to the Backlog of Rape Kits
The AP has a long story today about the long overdue “trend” of cities finally testing their backlog of rape kits. It outlines the “dramatic shift is taking hold across the country” by both police and prosecutors to process the thousands of rape kits sitting in storage across the country.
Man Charged in 1995 New York City Rape and Robbery After DNA Match
The Manhattan District Attorney has charged Joseph Giardala, 44, with raping and robbing a woman in New York City’s West Village in 1995. New York couldn’t identify Giardala by name after the rape, but entered his DNA into a national database, where it matched with a case in Florida earlier this year. In the years…
850 DNA Matches Found as Houston Clears Rape Kit Backlog
Officials announced that evidence from 6,663 untested rape kits in Houston has produced 850 hits in the FBI's national DNA database, the Associated Press reports. Charges have already been filed against 29 people since the $6 million effort to clear the backlog was launched in 2013.
Detroit Program Seeks Private Donations to Test 11,000 Rape Kits
Building on the momentum of a new $35 million national fund for rape kit testing, Detroit's Wayne County Prosecutor's office—which discovered 11,000 untested rape kits in an abandoned storage unit five years ago—announced a new public-private partnership working to raise $10 million to fund the investigation and…
Cities Across The U.S. Are Beginning to Wade Through Rape Kit Backlog
The horrifically astronomical number of untested rape kits nationwide is starting to recede, according to a report by BBC News.
Backlogged Rape Kits Are Helping Victims See Justice Years Later
In light of the increasing revelations regarding the extensive backlog of rape testing kits, more and more cities are attempting to remedy the stagnant condition of sexual assault justice.
This Impossibly Badass Prosecutor and 'Rape Kit' Advocate Is Our New Hero
Plagued by rape fatigue? Meet Detroit prosecutor Kym Worthy, the woman who's been leading the charge to sort through more than 11,000 untested police "rape kits" since 2009. Worthy is hellbent on getting the kits, which contain evidence of rape such as semen and saliva, logged, tested, and entered into the national…
Treatment For Rape Without Insurance Costs More Than Some Good Used Cars
First of all, here is a 1996 Subaru on sale in Wilton, Connecticut for $3,995. Let's all just let that marinate in our brain-juice for a second.
Genius: Strip Club Tax Will Help Pay for Rape Kit Processing
Happening now in Houston: A new $5 "sin tax" on strip clubs — called a "pole tax" — is expected to generate over $1 million in revenue for the city, and the cash will be used to help the city process rape kits. According to ABC News, Houston has an estimated 4,000-6,000 rape kits that have remained untested because of…
