CHICAGO, July 7 (UPI) -- The state of Illinois has a major backlog in testing physical evidence collected from rape victims, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
A new 51-page report issued by the group says the backlog is symptomatic of the failure of the state's criminal justice system to respond adequately to sexual assault crimes.
Human Rights Watch says testing data from 127 of Illinois' 267 jurisdictions found that only 1,474 of the 7,494 rape kits booked into evidence since 1995 have been confirmed as tested.
Those figures suggest 80 percent of rape kits may never have been examined, which might explain why the state has an 11 percent arrest rate for sexual assault, the group said.
When New York City adopted a policy of testing every booked rape kit, its arrest rate for rape rose from 40 percent to 70 percent.
Report author Sarah Tofte says Illinois' failure to test DNA evidence puts all women at risk by leaving rapists who could be identified at large.
