Working with others in your community to respond to sexual assault is the surest way to convict offenders and support victims. The Attorney General’s Crime Victim Services staff and Interpersonal Violence Response Training Team help local responders put such networks in place and provide expertise and resources to sustain them.
A hit rate of 36 percent on evidence from rape kits stored for years across the state translates into “miracles almost every day,” says Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Who would argue when Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor Rick Bell calls these offenders the “worst of the worst”?
The results we’re seeing with the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative — in the laboratory, in investigations, and in courtrooms — are among the most promising I’ve witnessed in my career.
A Q&A with Ilse Knecht of the National Center for Victims of Crime Ilse Knecht has been working to advance the DNA analysis of untested sexual assault kits for nearly 15 years. She is deputy director of public policy for the National Center for Victims of Crime and director of its DNA Resource Center. We spoke with her about victims’ needs and other issues related to the testing of old kits.