Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
When a person is the victim of a sexual assault, investigators collect evidence from the victim's body in something called a sexual assault evidence kit, most commonly known as a rape kit.
But there's a problem here in California. Thousands of these kits have never been analyzed.
There isn't a complete count but advocacy organizations think more than 9,000 have been shelved, never to be used.
To understand why California has such a substantial backlog of unanalyzed rape kits, Take Two's Josie Huang spoke with
. She's a contributor for Calmatters and has written about the backlog.
To hear the full interview with Samantha Young, click on the media player above.