There's a detective at the door; she wants to say 'sorry'

Hundreds of thousands of rape evidence kits went untested around the nation, in large part because police and prosecutors disbelieved victims on grounds of race and class. When crimes went unexamined, serial rapists continued to commit crimes and more victims were left with their trauma unaddressed. Prosecutors in Detroit and Cleveland fought for the resources to test the "rape kits" and found through DNA evidence thousands of suspects, large numbers of whom were connected to serial rapes. This film takes an intimate look at some victims, police, and prosecutors to show what clearing the backlog means.

Stand To End Rape (STER) is a youth-led Nigerian NGO that works with sexual and gender abuse survivors by providing services, including psychosocial support and advocacy to address cultural norms of victim-blaming, shaming, and skepticism that keep sexual assault survivors from getting help. 173 cases were reported to STER in 2019 and they provided legal support to 55 individuals from those cases. STER also works with the Women at Risk International Foundation for medical care and a 24-hour confidential helpline that took 230 calls in the last 2 years, an important but small fraction of national cases.

The Neem Foundation brings intensive counseling and 1-on-1 therapy to survivors who escaped the horrific violence of Boko Haram, a terrorist group in northeastern Nigeria. With months of aid and tough conversations, the organization attempts to reunite women and children who fled the violence with their families, many of whom shun the Boko Haram escapees.

Partnering police agencies and advocates for survivors of sexual assault in cities like Philadelphia and New York City has helped to solve some of the difficulties investigators have faced in cases of sexual assault while also holding investigators accountable for their attitudes and follow-through. Audits by advocates have "changed rape investigations nationwide" and provide a model for other cities.

In the past six years, backlogs of untested rape kits have been discovered across the country. Under the leadership of county prosecutor Kym Worthy, Detroit saw the nation's most ambitious—and effective—response to its backlog.

As campuses across the country race to address a burgeoning nationwide conversation about sexual assault, policymakers, politicians, university counselors and students alike are faced with a lack of quantitative information. But Yale University has taken significant steps to collect and distribute information that may finally change the toxic culture of campus sexual assault.

Maine's rape kit tracking pilot program, designed to give sexual assault survivors more control in their investigations, works like package tracking. Victims receive a postcard with a kit number after evidence collection and can check the status of their kit online.

States across the United States are implementing online portals for tracking sexual assault kits through the testing process. These systems are proven to reduce the massive backlogs of kits and ensure timely processing.

Among the many restorative justice programs in the U.S., the Domestic Violence Safe Dialogue program was one of the few to arrange face-to-face dialogue between survivors and men who had violently abused women. This form of surrogate dialogue – the pairings are between strangers – helps two people who want to change but can't do it alone. After extensive preparation and led by a facilitator, the meeting gives survivors a way to hear they were not to blame for the harm done to them, and for the men to admit responsibility and help someone else in ways that traditional punitive justice often cannot.

To combat high rates of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria, the Spotlight Initiative supports several organizations providing counseling and educational services to victims and to women and girls at risk of abuse. One program from the NEEM Foundation countered the pandemic shutdown by distributing transistor radios to continue its classes for women. Another, Save the Child Initiative, intervened in a child rape case that local authorities ignored, convincing national police to arrest the attacker and providing counseling to the victim and her mother.