April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, which describes it as a time for advocates, survivors, their loved ones, and the community to come together to talk openly about sexual violence to support survivors, increase knowledge and awareness, and identify strategies and resources to prevent sexual violence.”

With this in mind, the unfortunate news is that “many states struggle with backlogs in testing sexual assault kits, also known as rape kits or SAKs, the physical evidence collected from victims after an assault,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) in an April 10 brief. “Because many jurisdictions have no mechanism for tracking SAKs, it is unknown how many are untested; but in 2024, the Joyful Heart Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group, identified at least 225,000 untested kits in jurisdictions across the country.”

“Many kits remain in police evidence storage facilities,” writes the NCSL, “If the kits are sent to a lab, they can languish there due to a high volume of cases and a shortage of staff and funding to process them. Colorado’s new backlog dashboard indicates that the state has an assault kit turnaround time of about 560 days. When results from the kits are received, law enforcement may not have the staff or resources to follow up on any resulting leads.”

That’s the bad news, but there’s reason to have hope, as long as planned improvements aren’t adversely affected by weakening budgets, and potential staff cutbacks.

An end of the year report from the Joyful Heart Foundation indicated that “From 2013 to December 2024, 33 states and Washington, D.C., passed bills that grant state funds towards ending the backlog. These states allocated $241 million to end the backlog and to test more than 201,000 kits.”

The report went on to calculate that “states granted $7.3 million on average to end the backlog, ranging from $94,250 in Georgia to $72 million in Texas.” (The report noted that Texas had 20,000 untested kits in 2013.)

Beyond providing additional funding to help reduce the backlog, it’s critical to put together the data that’s essential to tracking the progress made in dealing with rape kits, instead of just allowing them to languish, unused in a lab.

The two most recent states to require rape tracking systems have been Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 

As Pennsylvania’s State Police Commissioner said in a recent release from the state, “The implementation of this statewide tracking system underscores our commitment to enhancing public service and fostering transparency.”

As the NCSL explains, “Pennsylvania’s new tracking system, which is being developed with a $2.5 million federal grant, allows victims to remain informed of their submitted samples, requires a help desk for survivors and allows survivors to opt in for notifications and status updates.”

In New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy signed S715/A908 in January, “which requires the Office of the Attorney General to establish an internet-based rape kit tracking system,” according to a release from the governor’s office. In addition, the AG is to issue guidelines for a sexual assault forensic evidence (SAFE) kit tracking system that is accessible to victims as well as law enforcement officers at different levels of government, and where appropriate, health care facility or lab employees.

As the Governor was quoted as saying, “This well overdue bill cements into law the work our Administration has undertaken to support survivors (who) will have access to a dedicated tracking system to stay informed through every step of their pursuit of justice.”

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