From Rainn

September 27, 2008 - (Washington, DC) - RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization, issued the following statement today regarding the passage of the Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2008:

"The Debbie Smith Act is the most important piece of anti-rape legislation that Congress has ever passed, and its reauthorization is a victory for thousands of sexual assault victims whose perpetrators have yet to be identified. The bill extends critical funding for the processing of the DNA backlog of rape kits and other forensic evidence," said Scott Berkowitz, president and founder of RAINN. "DNA has revolutionized the way that we identify perpetrators and prosecute rape cases in the 21st century, and thanks to the Debbie Smith Act reauthorization, law enforcement will continue to have the funding needed to identify rapists through DNA technology and keep them off of our streets."

From Jezebel

A new federal requirement that states fund 'Jane Doe' rape kits is now officially on the books. Statistics collected by the Justice Department in 2006 estimated that only 41% of sexual assaults are reported in the United States and the 'Jane Doe' kits, hospital-administered kits that are sealed and identified with a number, not a name, are meant to lessen the stigma many women feel about reporting sexual assaults to police. According to Carey Goryl, the executive director of the International Association of Forensic Nurses, "Sometimes the issue of actually having to make a report to police can be a barrier to victims, and this will allow that barrier to cease, to allow the victim to think about it before deciding whether to talk to police."

From Los Angeles Times

A backlog in the testing of rape kits in Los Angeles means that many crime victims still wait for answers.

I spent a recent morning at the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, where women (and men and children) get emergency medical care and counseling immediately after they have been raped. I was researching how the center's nurse practitioners collect evidence for a "rape kit."

According to the Justice Department's most recent National Crime Victimization Survey, only about 40% of sexual assaults are reported to police, though other nongovernmental studies indicate even lower rates of 10% to 20%. But among those who do report a rape, most are taken to a hospital to have a rape kit created. In this age of "CSI" and other forensic science TV series, rape victims believe that DNA and other evidence in their rape kits will help police and prosecutors find and punish their assailants. If only that were more true.

From Feministing

A new report by Child Trends found that approximately 18 percent of women aged 18 to 24 years old report having experienced forced sexual intercourse at least once in their lives. This release from the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) notes that the most common types of force are verbal or physical pressure, and being physically held down

"More than half the women forced to have sexual intercourse report experiencing each of these types of force. Approximately a quarter of the women report being physically hurt."

The fact that women are more likely to be assaulted when they're young is not new information, but the people at FVPF are using these numbers to talk about an issue that isn't often discussed: reproductive coercion. The organization, who had a call out last year for stories of birth control sabotage, has launched the kNOw More initiative, which examines the reproductive health consequences of sexual coercion and violence.

From ChickSpeak

What do you think of when you think of rape? Walking down a dark city street alone late at night, a strange man assaulting a young girl? A drug slipped in a cocktail and a girl waking up a few hours later unsure of why her clothes have been pulled off? What about when you get drunk with a friend, one thing leads to another, and before you can make up your mind, he's penetrating you?

The first two instances might seem more cut and dry than the last, but actually, they're all rape. Lately, however, the latter situation has come be to called "gray rape" - not quite rape, but not exactly consensual sex either.

The concept of gray rape is a hot issue among experts in sexual assault issues. For many campus coordinators and anti-violence groups, rape is rape: If someone did not make it clear that he or she wanted to have sex, it's rape, no matter what the other circumstances are.

From The GW Hatchet

A Howard student is suing the University for negligence and medical malpractice because she said she was raped and denied proper care at GW Hospital because she allegedly appeared intoxicated, according to documents filed in D.C. Superior Court.

The plaintiff, a 19-year-old sophomore, also filed suit against the District, Howard University Hospital and several local doctors. The complaint states she was given a date-rape drug at an off-campus party near Howard and was then denied a rape kit at several hospitals - including GW.

A rape kit is a collection of bodily fluids and samples taken after a possible sexual assault to help identify the perpetrator. It can include semen, blood and body tissue.

From Denver Post

Socorro, N.M. - Bruised and shaking, Joanna watched the doctor prepare the instruments that could cull traces of a gang rape from her body. At a party the night before, three fellow New Mexico Tech students had drugged her, overpowered her and raped her, she told the hospital staff. Now, she was lying unclothed on a cold table splashed with bright light, allowing another set of prying hands - a female physician's - to probe her body. "Just please get it over with," the 19-year- old recalls saying to herself last November.