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Vice President Joe Biden
Grant announced
to Address Untested Sexual Assault Kits backlog
NEW YORK, NY – Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Loretta E.
Lynch today announced $41 million in grant awards to 20 jurisdictions
to eliminate or reduce the number of untested sexual assault kits
across the country. Today’s announcement is being announced as
part of an unprecedented partnership with the New York County District
Attorney’s Office (DANY) – whose own grant program is contributing $38
million to the cause for a total of $79 million to eliminate the
backlog reaching 43 jurisdictions in 27 states across the country.
“Rape kits are an essential tool in modern crime fighting — not only
for the victim, but, for the entire community. Studies show we solve up
to 50 percent of previously unsolved rapes when these kits are tested.
When we solve these cases, we get rapists off the streets. For most
survivors, seeing their rapists brought to justice, and knowing that
they will not return, brings peace of mind and a sense of closure. The
grants we’re announcing today to reduce the national rape kit backlog
will bring that sense of closure and safety to victims while improving
community safety,” Vice President Biden said.
“The groundbreaking initiative we are announcing today is part of the
Justice Department’s longstanding efforts to support survivors of
sexual violence and to bring abusers to justice,” said Attorney General
Loretta Lynch. “For anyone who has felt isolated and afraid, left
out and left behind as a result of a sexual crime, our message is
clear: we will not forget you. We will not abandon you. You
are not alone.”
The National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a competitive grant program
administered by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance
(BJA), supports the comprehensive reform of jurisdictions’ approaches
to evidence found in sexual assault kits that have never been submitted
to a crime laboratory for testing. BJA created the initiative in
consultation with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office for
Victims of Crime, (OVC), and Office on Violence Against Women
(OVW). The goals of the initiative are to create a coordinated
community response that ensures just resolution to these cases whenever
possible through a victim-centered approach, as well as to build
jurisdictions’ capacity to prevent conditions that lead to high numbers
of untested kits. The funding awarded through DANY’s program will pay
directly for testing kits, and the combined effort between BJA and DANY
is projected to achieve testing of approximately 70,000 sexual assault
kits. BJA and DANY partnered to reach as many jurisdictions as possible
and also to identify jurisdictions where funding could be combined to
adequately address kit backlogs.
The initiative is part of the Justice Department’s larger ongoing
effort to comprehensively address the problem of sexual assault and to
support victims. For example, NIJ maintains a webpage on Sexual
Assault Investigations, Sexual Assault Kits: Using Science to Find
Solutions, which provides information ranging from improving forensic
sexual assault examinations to research findings on untested evidence
in sexual assault cases. OVC provides a Sexual Assault Response
Team Toolkit, which has over 1.4 million views to date and includes a
checklist of recommendations for victim-centered policies and practices
in developing a sexual assault response. OVW updated the National
Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations and released
a companion document on Recommendations for Administrators of Prisons,
Jails, and Community Confinement Facilities for Adapting the U.S.
Department of Justice's National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical
Forensic Examinations, Adults/Adolescents.
Since 2008, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has provided more
than $825 million for DNA analysis in crime laboratories and for
activities such as research dedicated to strengthening the accuracy and
reliability of forensic science.
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