RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Victory for sexual assault victims who’ve been fighting to end the backlog of untested rape kits in Virginia.
Thanks to a $1.4 million grant, more than 2,000 rape kits sitting in police storage will be tested for DNA.
“This is going to be really important to do the testing, expand our database, potentially catch perpetrators and I know it is going to mean so much for survivors, advocates, law enforcement,” explained Attorney General Mark Herring.
Testing can range in cost from $500 to $3000 a kit. It can take on average about 72 days to get the results.
Yet, sexual assault survivors argue results can lead to arrests and get rapists off the streets.
Herring agrees.
“Sexual assault is sometimes a serial crime and being able to identify a perpetrator can help us identify other cases and victims it can also help us also prevent future victimization,” says Herring.
The grant money Virginia is receiving is party of a bigger pledge to $80 Million dollars from The White House and the Manhattan’s District Attorney’s office.
Together they plan to disperse the money across the country and test 70,000 kits nationwide.
The portion of the money that Virginia is receiving is coming from the NYC DA’s office. It is not taxpayer dollars but money that police departments gathered from criminal activity.
More information is available at http://t.co/bQ5Z8cTiAQ.
