Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:20 am
In a press conference call Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder pushed funding for reducing the backlog of untested rape kits and assisting prosecution of sexual assault cases, as called for in the President’s 2015 Budget.
AG Holder acknowledged the Vice President’s long commitment to ending violence against women, calling him “a strong steadfast leader” “who had made a singular contribution” in the fight to end violence against women.
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Holder said that the budget reflected the values of the entire Obama administration, “funding levels in Obama’s budget reflect the values of Obama administration, V.P. Biden, and this DOJ.
Vice President Biden started off by explaining that when he was working on getting the first Violence Against Women Act passed, they didn’t realize how many rape kits were not being tested. But specifically after the introduction of DNA evidence, “All of the sudden if we could test these rape kits, we could solve a whole hell of a lot of crimes.”
The Vice President also pointed out that the AG knows that DNA evidence offers peace of mind to the victims. He said, “The single most significant step” for a woman who’s been raped is “the peace of mind of knowing she’s no longer in he said/she said category, because that’s the place where they get revictimized.”
Biden pointed out, “Relatively few offenders who commit large amount of crimes.” Indeed, RAINN reported,”46% of rapists who were released from prison were re-arrested within 3 years of their release for another crime.”
Biden talked about the kinds of long term damage rape can do to the victims, “If it can’t get closed, I bet you know that person who no longer walks out to her car…” As if surviving a rape isn’t enough, “A significant number of women who have been victimized end up with chronic illnesses.”
This is why, Biden said, “there are certain problems that cannot wait” regarding the budget. This is why the President’s budget includes funding for VAWA, shelters, and hotlines. The Vice President said the budget calls on Congress to invest $35 million in a new grant program to get untested rape kits off of the shelves so that we can investigate and prosecute.
Once a DNA profile is made, it can be submitted to national database including convicted offenders and arrestees, it can confirm the identity of a known suspect and affirm a survivor’s story. He noted the awful truth, “Thousands of these cases are backlogged. We don’t know exactly how many… Studies show that law enforcement don’t prioritize rape kit testing because they don’t understand how they can be used.”
Plus, it’s not just the case at hand, but the proper testing of rape kits could help solve a lot of crimes. Biden said, “And even if the guy is pleading guilty, the DNA is important because he may be serial raper. Many rapists strike more than once.”
The Vice President asked why Republicans would oppose this when he doesn’t believe that they oppose testing rape kits, “Why is there any opposition? I believe that Republicans want to solve rape cases as do Democrats, so why is there opposition?”
It’s sad that the Republican Party has become so mired in their war on women in order to hook into the resentment of their straggling base of older white men that they have spent the last few years engaged in a policy war on women, including taking a year to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, trying to label female victims “accusers” and granting more rights to rapists over any baby that is conceived in the commission of a crime. We’d certainly like to believe that Republicans want rape kits tested as much as Democrats do, but since they tried to defund the VAWA, that may be a hopelessly romantic view of the party as it used to be.
Eric Holder said that the backlog fell short of our values, and said pointedly that we can’t allow budget cuts at the expense of victims. He stressed the importance of the $35 million for a new grant program that would allow communities to identify their critical needs.
Echoing Biden’s call for a united effort to put an end to the backlog of untested rape kits, Holder said, “this is a non-partisan issue, we have to keep in mind the victims of these heinous crimes.”
Republicans have made it clear that they have zero interest in the President’s budget, but given the fact that testing rape kits would definitely take violent repeat offenders off the streets, we have to wonder why Republicans aren’t on board. If that’s not a war on women, what is? It’s obviously not a BFD to the GOP, but it is to victims, their friends and families, and the people who will be victimized by offenders who could have been taken off of the streets if not for the Republican Party’s sad catering to a resentful minority.
Within the President’s budget, per a fact sheet from the White House:
A New Grant Program to Test More Rape Kits and Improve Sexual Assault Investigations: A rape kit is the forensic evidence, including DNA, collected from a survivor by a nurse or doctor after a rape or sexual assault occurs. It can be vital to successfully investigating these crimes and holding perpetrators accountable.
Continued Efforts to Combat Violence Against Women. The Budget provides $423 million to reinforce efforts to combat and respond to violent crimes against women.
Support for Victims of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking. The Budget also provides $140 million for shelters, supportive services, and a national hotline for victims of domestic violence, including $10 million for an initiative that provides direct services to domestic victims of trafficking, trains service providers, and invests in data collection, research, and evaluation.
Image: Mark Wilson / Getty via Time
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