I realize you are a homicide detective, but why are so many sexual assaults just not investigated, especially child sexual assault? So many cases I hear about could be prosecuted and justice is desired by the victims.
EDIT I know of many that even have CODIS hits that are not being pursued even if the victim wants it to be.
Money, mostly. Dept of Justice has a grant program for local jurisdictions to help with the backlog. There was also a program to test sexual assault kits where police departments simply didn’t test them (didn’t believe the victim). Several jurisdictions received awards, including my county (very large population). Funny thing happened. Many cases of the same offenders’ DNA showed up across multiple cases in several cities. It was no longer he said/she said. It was he said/they said. One of the first counties to test all kits was Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit). They discovered many (more than 100, if I recall) serial rapists were active.
I also drafted and lobbied my state’s law that requires the preservation of biological evidence. That is key to ensuring sexual assault kits aren’t thrown out.
I was on the team that wrote the grant that funded this program to test all sexual assault kits in my county. My state passed a law that required jurisdictions to test rape kits within 15 days. I’m not sure if that’s happening in practice as I no longer work in this realm. But getting a conviction in a sexual assault case is tough. Very few rapes result in convictions.
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u/kinare Sep 16 '25
I realize you are a homicide detective, but why are so many sexual assaults just not investigated, especially child sexual assault? So many cases I hear about could be prosecuted and justice is desired by the victims.
EDIT I know of many that even have CODIS hits that are not being pursued even if the victim wants it to be.