12-year-old Mia came to the rape treatment center in Santa Barbara because her school counselor suspected sexual abuse. Like most victims, Mia (a pseudonym) was told that this evidence, known as a “rape kit,” would be used to try to identify her assailant through a DNA match.
But the rape kit collected from Mia’s body was one of tens of thousands of such kits across the United States that sit in storage, untested, for years.
On May 18, 2009, the public pressure that Human Rights Watch generated led to a landmark vote by the Los Angeles City Council. Recognizing the immensity of the problem, the council pledged new funding to expedite the testing of all the rape kits under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Police Department.