Sexual Assault

Guest: Julie Valentine, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner and Nursing Professor at BYU  Every few minutes, someone in America is sexually assaulted, but the vast majority of those rapes do not get reported. Of those that do, it’s highly unlikely the perpetrator will spend even a day in jail. Keep in mind, when the crime is rape, the crime scene is literally the victim’s body, so evidence has to be collected immediately and processed later. However, that DNA and other evidence, collected in what’s called a “rape kit,” is highly likely to end up sitting on a shelf in some police precinct, never to be tested for a DNA match. Best estimates by media outlets and the department of justice place the national backlog of untested rape kits in the tens of thousands.