{"id":6887,"date":"2017-06-23T18:41:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T18:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6887"},"modified":"2017-06-23T18:41:44","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T18:41:44","slug":"new-texas-law-enables-comprehensive-rape-kit-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6887","title":{"rendered":"New Texas Law Enables Comprehensive Rape Kit Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Advocates<\/a>

Advocates say DNA testing of evidence in rape kits is the key to identifying suspects in sexual assault cases. Photo: GettyImages<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0With the passage of a bill establishing a tracking system for evidence in sexual-assault cases, Texas has become the first state to implement comprehensive rape-kit reforms.<\/p>\n

There are an estimated 20,000 or more untested rape kits sitting in evidence lockers around the state, but new regulations are aimed at ensuring the backlog is identified and tested, and that new kits are processed without delay.<\/p>\n

Ilse Knecht, director of policy and advocacy with the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national advocacy group for rape survivors, said the goal of rape kit reform is to provide justice for those who experience sexual assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach one of these untested kits represents a survivor who has done everything that society asked them to do, believing and really hoping that the kit will be tested,\u201d Knecht said.<\/p>\n

State lawmakers passed\u00a0House Bill 281<\/a>\u00a0this past session, mandating that the Texas Department of Public Safety track all rape kits from collection to analysis.<\/p>\n

Knecht said it\u2019s part of what her group calls the \u201csix pillars of reform,\u201d which also include identifying and testing the backlog, processing new kits, notifying victims of results and adequately funding the process.<\/p>\n

Donna Howard, a state representative from Austin, sponsored HB 281 along with a dozen bipartisan co-sponsors. She said for assault survivors, the most important part of the bill is that it allows them to keep track of the evidence in their case.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the horrific nature of this particular crime and the repercussions in terms of not having control over what\u2019s done to your body, having the opportunity to have any control over what\u2019s going on can be very empowering,\u201d Howard observed.<\/p>\n

Knecht said it takes not only money to reform the system, but also a recognition of the seriousness of the problem by state lawmakers and law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have seen across time is that jurisdictions, while they cite the lack of resources and personnel as the largest barrier to processing rape kits, there\u2019s also been an unwillingness to prioritize sexual assault as the serious crime that it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Knecht estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits across the country. She said the goal is to pass rape-kit reform legislation in all 50 states by 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0With the passage of a bill establishing a tracking system for evidence in sexual-assault cases, Texas has become the first state to implement comprehensive rape-kit reforms. There are an estimated 20,000 or more untested rape kits sitting in evidence lockers around the state, but new regulations are aimed at ensuring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6889,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions\/6889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}