Michelle Tuccitto Sullo of The CT Law Tribune reports as follows:
"The evidence collected from a victim after a sexual assault can yield key information for investigators, yet a survey of police around the state last fall revealed there were hundreds of untested sexual assault evidence kits kept in storage.
Starting on Oct. 1, a new state law will require police to transfer these evidence kits within 10 days for laboratory analysis and DNA testing. Once received, the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory has 60 days to analyze and process the evidence. Under current state law, there are no deadlines for submitting or analyzing the kits.
These changes mean there will likely be more identification of offenders, including serial offenders, according to Deborah Heinrich, director of public policy and communication with the East Hartford-based Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, or CONNSACS. "Each kit represents a victim waiting for justice, and we would like to see them have that opportunity," Heinrich said..."
Read more:
http://www.ctlawtribune.com/id=1202735657293/New-Law-Expected-to-Boost-Sex-Assault-Prosecutions#ixzz3jxJWbSyA
I find this discussion very interesting. Putting victims through the lengthy and burdensome process of collecting the rape kit and then leaving them on the shelf for years to rot, not even bothering to process them. I find an interesting parallel here between the neglect of the rape kits and the verbal support of domestic violence victims, multiple task forces that are held on DV, PR campaigns like "It's on us." Meanwhile, the reality is that if you go to court and state you are victim of DV, particularly family court as Adrianne Oyola discovered to her detriment, the Court is likely to believe you are making the DV up. Talk is one thing, action is another. Collecting material for a rape kit is one thing, testing it so you can actually get the perpetrator is another. Putting up fancy PR bulletins is one thing, giving a Mother a protective order when she reports on the the abuse is another.
ReplyDeleteI'd say to law enforcement and the CT Judicial Branch "Learn the difference"
DeletePrograms don't work because there are no procedures in place to see the intended results reach conclusion. They just leave the ideas hanging out there without any follow through. So they're really never solving anything yet we are electing and/or paying them, and we are just idiots for doing so. You are right. Just like its great to screen for DV, but unless there's going to be reform in family court to ensure the results of avoiding exposure to DV, the program is useless. More waste of taxpayer money. Women and children will learn not to report because nothing is going to be done with it in the end. They may even give your child or children to the abuser. It's become a very sorry state of affairs despite the attention DV is getting. Let's hope the task force recommends reforms in the family courts so they stop calling DV high conflict, and place children with the loving non-abusive parent.
ReplyDelete