In California, estimates say thousands of rape kits left unprocessed

This Feb. 8, 2017, photo, sexual assault evidence collection kit are shown during committee meeting at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City. Utah crime lab officials are feeling optimistic as they work to speed up the time it takes to process sexual assault evidence kits, after lawmakers approved a measure last month that sends more than $1 million to go toward this effort.

Why does California have such a substantial backlog of unanalyzed sexual assault evidence kits compared other states? And what can legislators do about it?

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

Tweets by youngsamantha

. 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.