EVAWI Training Module 17: Untested Evidence and the Investigation of Cold Sexual Assault Cases

In July 2015, USA Today published the results of an “exclusive nationwide count,” which indicated that hundreds of thousands of sexual assault kits and associated evidence were being stored by law enforcement without ever being submitted for analysis.1 Each kit was seen as a missed opportunity for justice – another survivor failed by the system, another rapist free to re-perpetrate. The article opens with the story of Joanie Scheske, whose rapist was identified 18 years following her sexual assault, when evidence in another case was finally tested. That evidence remained in police storage for eight years, and Scheske could not understand why.

organization_for_library: End Violence Against Women International