Charging Victims For Rape Kits

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Charging Victims For Rape Kits
4
Mon, 05-11-2009 - 9:47am

Texas Accused Of Charging Victims For Rape Kits


http://chattahbox.com/us/2009/05/10/texas-accused-of-charging-victims-for-rape-kits/


Texas has become the most recent of several states to be caught charging rape victims large sums of money to cover their own rape kits, after they visit hospitals for exams.



The practice isn’t new, and other states such as Georgia, Alaska, and North Carolina have been found in the past to later bill victims for their kits. The cost can sometimes be up to $2,000, and women rarely expect to have such a high cost added to the pain and humiliation of an attack.


The practice has caused outrage, but Texas in particular has brought on activist’s ire, after it was found that this was being done despite the state’s victim’s aid funds being full. Apparently, money seems to gather when officials refuse to release it to the people it is meant for.


The following is an informative article.........


Rape Victims Can Be Hurt Financially, Too

It's tough enough for rape victims to come forward. Now there's another reason for them to think twice about reporting the crime: They may get stuck with a hefty bill for the rape kit used to collect evidence against their attacker.


Talk about adding insult to injury. In a story last week in the Raleigh News & Observer, reporter Mandy Locke described the situation in North Carolina, where "the vast majority of the 3,000 or so emergency room patients examined for sexual assaults each year shoulder some of the cost of a rape kit test." A state victims compensation fund intended to help cover the bills is woefully underfunded and had capped payouts for the $1,600 test at $1,000. Since Locke's story ran, "The cap has been lifted," says North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety spokesperson Patty McQuillan, though she noted that the legislature would still have to provide the additional funds.



Knecht says she's recently heard from caseworkers in Illinois, Georgia, and Arkansas reporting that rape victims continue to be charged for their forensic exams.


The rape kit itself generally contains bags to collect clothing, test tubes for collecting blood, swabs for fluid, and a comb to collect pubic hair. Small-change stuff. But exams also involve administering tests for pregnancy, HIV, gonorrhea, and syphilis, and that's where the costs add up, says Randall Brown, medical director for the Baton Rouge Rape Crisis Center in Louisiana.


How forensic exam costs are handled varies. In some locations, hospitals bill patients' insurance and absorb whatever the insurers don't pay or bill patients for the balance. Some states have special funds to cover a portion of the costs. Others require convicted offenders to pay into a fund to reimburse the costs of the exams.


No one I spoke with tried to defend the practice of billing rape victims for their exams. Predictably, people cited a host of problems—from bureaucratic inefficiency to chronic underfunding of victim compensation funds—that partially explain but don't excuse it.



More... http://health.usnews.com/blogs/on-health-and-money/2008/02/21/rape-victims-can-be-hurt-financially-too.html


Palin On Rape Kit Accusations: ‘The Entire Notion Of Making A Victim Of A Crime Pay For Anything Is Crazy’


The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman — the hometown newspaper of Sarah Palin — reports that the Governor has replied to a list of 14 submitted questions. Among the queries was a question about the fact that, while she was mayor of Wasilla, her administration’s policy was to “bill victims” for their rape kits:



It is indeed “crazy,” yet charging sexual assault victims for their rape kits (which cost $300 to $1,200 at the time) is exactly what happened while she was mayor of Wasilla. In a budget-cutting move, Palin’s administration began charging rape victims for exams and the kits containing the medical supplies. (Her signature is on the budget.) USA Today reported:



It is not known how many rape victims in Wasilla were required to pay for some or all of the medical exams, but a legislative staffer who worked on the bill for Croft said it happened. “It was more than a couple of cases, and it was standard practice in Wasilla,” Peggy Wilcox said, who now works for the Alaska Public Employees Association. “If you were raped in Wasilla, this was going to happen to you.”


The practice of charging rape victims got the attention of state lawmakers in 2000, who passed a bill to stop the practice.


In her short tenure as Governor, Palin has come under criticism for presiding over a state where rape is “epidemic.” A March study by a state task force found that level of funding only covered the cost of helping women and children hurt by the epidemic of sexual violence. It was not enough to try to prevent assaults from happening or to ensure “accountability of offenders.”


Peggy Brown, executive director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said of Palin: “She’s really done a lot of work on oil and gas, but when it comes to violence against women and children…we haven’t been on her radar as a priority.”


More...... http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/30/palin-rape/

bird-1.jpg New picture by 1944misty    The WeatherPixie 

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-05-2009
Mon, 05-11-2009 - 11:11am

I read your links, and there was no information about Texas at all.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 05-11-2009 - 11:22am

It is the title of the first article in the post which was the first article I came across & the most current on this subject.

"Is this Texas bashing week or what?"

I chose to leave it off the heading of the thread for precisely that reason. Seemed like Tx was being picked on lately but was not my intent.

bird-1.jpg New picture by 1944misty

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-01-2008
Mon, 05-11-2009 - 11:30am

Supposedly, there was recently put into place, a FEDERAL LAW that required hospital emergency rooms to offer FREE rape kits to victims in the US. These States are, I think, illegally collecting money from victims.




Edited 5/11/2009 11:34 am ET by martazoila
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-05-2009
Mon, 05-11-2009 - 11:38am

It is the title of the first article in the post which was the first article I came across & the most current on this subject.


I'll be the first to admit, I'm not an expert at what qualifies as an article, or a blog post, or whatever... but was your first link a news