EPISODE 6
Featuring Dr. Rachel E. Lovell | April 23rd, 2024
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Imagine if you were sexually assaulted, decided to get evidence collected from your body, and then that evidence sat uninvestigated for decades. In 2010, this was the reality for about 14,000 victims of sexual assault in Ohio alone. In this episode, Laura interviews criminologist Dr. Rachel Lovell of Cleveland State University. They discuss how Ohio cleared the sexual assault test kit backlog over a five year period and how the results have been used to prosecute perpetrators in Cuyahoga County, becoming a role model for other parts of the country. In addition, Dr. Lovell shares how the results of these analyses have resulted in new findings about patterns of sexual assault and new approaches to caring for victims.
Listen to Episode 6 here:
Dr. Rachel E. Lovell
Dr. Rachel E. Lovell
Rachel E. Lovell is an Assistant Professor of Criminology in the Department of Criminology and Sociology and Director of the Criminology Research Center at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is an applied criminologist and methodologist whose research focuses on gender-based violence and victimization, particularly sexual assault, human trafficking, and intimate partner violence. Since 2015, Dr. Lovell has been the Principal Investigator on several large action research projects on untested sexual assault kits in collaboration with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and the Akron Police Department, with funding provided by the Department of Justice's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. As an extension of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, she is the lead researcher on the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office’s Lawfully “Owed” DNA Initiative.
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Transcript of Episode 6
S1E6 Transcript.pdfPage updated
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