THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

How can you be expected to catch the perp? And Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has pledged funding to help reduce the huge backlog of unexamined rape kits in police departments and hopefully catch some perps.

“Certainly, there is an issue of rape culture,” Natasha Alexenko, founder of Natasha’s Justice Group, said. “We hear people say things like, ‘Well, women lie,’ or, ‘She’s doing it to get revenge.’”

But analysts say each time a suspect is convicted with the help of DNA evidence, it helps to break down the assumption that rape victims lie about their assaults, a long-held notion that may have kept some rape victims’ evidence kits from being DNA-tested.

The announcement that the Manhattan DA’s office would disburse millions of dollars to counties across the country that apply for the funds comes after Congress recently re-approved the Debbie Smith Act. The legislation, renewed through 2019, gives federal grants to state and local law enforcement agencies so they can expedite the testing of evidence kits from sexual assault cases.

The law is named for a woman from Williamsburg, Virginia, who was dragged from her home by a masked stranger and raped in 1989. The evidence from her sexual assault evidence kit was not tested until 1994, which helped the police almost immediately apprehend her attacker.

The funding from the Manhattan DA will help pay the $1,000 to $1,500 it can cost to DNA-test the evidence in each rape kit. The U.S. Department of Justice has estimated that there are some 400,000 untested kits nationwide.

There are 12,000 untested kits in Memphis alone, 11,000 in Detroit and 4,000 in Cleveland, according to statistics gathered by the Rape Kit Action Project, a collaboration between the National Center for Victims of Crime, Natasha’s Justice Project, and the Rape Abuse Incest National Network (RAINN).

Rights advocates say they struggle to understand why such a staggering number of kits go untested, even after assault survivors go through a lengthy and uncomfortable physical exam to gather the forensic evidence.

The cost of testing the evidence can be daunting, especially in a sharply reduced funding environment as a result of massive Republican tax cuts at all levels. I'm not saying that the Republicans are deliberately providing cover for rapists, but it helps to know what happens when they slash governmental revenue.