Today, Joyful Heart Foundation Founder and President Mariska Hargitay was proud to stand beside Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance as they awarded nearly $80 million in funding for law enforcement agencies to address their backlogs of untested rape kits. This historic investment will help jurisdictions develop […]
NEW YORK – The Joyful Heart Foundation, one of the leading advocacy organizations working toward nationwide rape kit reform, today applauded the awards of nearly $80 million in grants to address the backlog of untested sexual assault kits at law enforcement agencies. At an event onstage today with Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta […]
Over the past year, there has been unprecedented movement in the call for rape kit reform. The issue has been covered extensively in the media; the federal government created a new $41 million grant program focused on the untested rape kit backlog and the New York District Attorney’s Office announced $35 million in grant funds […]
USA TODAY, Gannett and TEGNA TV have just released the results of a sweeping investigation on the scope of the rape kit backlog: more than 70,000 untested rape kits—each collected in the aftermath of a sexual assault— confirmed across 1,000+ police departments throughout the country. Like The Accountability Project, Joyful Heart’s own initiative to uncover […]
It is estimated that only between 2 and 8 % of rape accusations are false. Yet rape victims face one of the steepest barriers to being believed by the criminal justice system, and their cases are the least likely of any violent crime to move forward through prosecution. Several news articles over the past few […]
Prepares to Testify before U.S. Senate Committee FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 19, 2015CONTACT: Melissa Schwartz, media@joyfulheartfoundation.org NEW YORK – As part of its ongoing effort to identify the number of untested rape kits across the United States, the Joyful Heart Foundation today released information obtained from the following cities: • Charlotte, North Carolina (1,019 kits) […]
Last week, Special Investigations Division Chief of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office Rick Bell shared about the surprising discoveries that emerged from taking an unconventional at the rape kit backlog through an economic impact lens. In our final part of his interview, Rick talks about how Cuyahoga County is moving forward to address their backlog, […]
Several years ago, law enforcement in Cleveland discovered nearly 4,000 untested rape kits, dating from 1993. By 2014, every kit had been submitted for testing in accordance with Ohio’s Sexual Assault Kit Testing Initiative, and the testing of the first 2,326 kits yielded stunning results: 968 matches in the CODIS national DNA database, 324 investigations, […]
ENDTHEBACKLOG had the opportunity to interview Rick Bell, the Special Investigations Division Chief in the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. Rick has been with the office for more than 20 years, working in every unit of the Criminal Division before being promoted to Criminal Investigations Division Chief. Rick directs the Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Task […]
