How many “sexual assault kits” are on the backlog we discussed yesterday? We don’t know. We can confidently say, “thousands.”
The difficulty comes in that there is no national database to keep track of them. Sometimes, they’re kept on a state by state basis, sometimes even just a city by city basis, or even individual labs or a police station. It’s a mess.
That’s part of what Concerned Women for America is working to address.
The Joyful Heart Foundation, for example, estimates there are more than 175,000 untested “sexual assault kits,” from their look at just 38 states with the information available.
We can’t know for sure, but it is a disturbing number no matter what.
Join us on the front lines. Help us defend victims of sexual assault at both the national and state level. Visit www.CapitolHillBrief.org today. If you’d like to hear these commentaries on the radio, find me on your local radio station.