Rape test results take too long, prosecutor says
ABA Journal file photo of Anita Alvarez by ©Kathy Anderson.
There’s a national backlog for rape test results, and in Cook County the process takes about one year, its state’s attorney said Thursday.
Speaking at a Chicago forum about rape kit testing, Anita Alvarez stated that her office asks the state crime lab to expedite tests for emergency cases, such as a child living in the same home as an accused rapist, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Even then, Alvarez said, the process takes about a year.
It costs approximately $1,200 to analyze a rape kit, and there’s a backlog of approximately 400,000 untested rape kits in the United States, according to Test400K, an advocacy group for women and children that sponsored the Chicago forum.
As of March 2016 there was a backlog of 2,179 rape kit tests at the Illinois state police crime lab, according to the Sun-Times. Arlene Hall, commander of the lab, stated that agency had 80 scientists to process the tests in 2009; now it only has 62. They do have a new contract to outsource some of the testing, and they’re trying to make internal changes that will speed things up, she said.
Some states—among them Georgia, Kentucky and Ohio—recently considered legislation setting timelines to speed up the process of testing rape kits.
See also:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Amid cheers, rape kit bill clears final hurdle in Georgia”
Associated Press: “Bill to speed rape-kit tests gets final passage”
WCPO: “Ohio law to speed rape kit testing”
