Wednesday, June 1, 2011

NY rape victim leads project to catch predators - Yahoo! News

NY rape victim leads project to catch predators - Yahoo! News: "WEST SAYVILLE, N.Y. – Natasha Alexenko wants more rapists in prison.
A sexual assault survivor who waited 15 years to see her assailant brought to justice, Alexenko — who is featured in an upcoming HBO documentary on sex crime prosecutions — insists authorities often have the evidence to convict predators, but it goes untested for years. It happened to her.
The Long Island woman is the founder of and spokeswoman for the new Natasha's Justice Project, which seeks to advocate for rape victims and erase a nationwide backlog of untested sexual assault kits, also known as rape kits. The backlog could be in the tens of thousands, according to some estimates.
'You'd be surprised how many people are not aware of the fact that an individual is sexually assaulted, we have the DNA evidence, and yet the kit sits on a shelf going absolutely nowhere,' said Alexenko, 38, who recently resigned as head of the Long Island Maritime Museum to support the foundation."

No comments: