that has raped two or more victims. serial rape may involve sexual partner violence or non-partner sexual violence, and it may be in the same family, in the same or different regions of a city, or in different cities or states. dna collected by rape kits can help lead to identifying and arresting a person guilty of serial rape. in both stranger and non-stranger sexual assault cases, dna testing of rape kit evidence and dna database hits help identify serial sexual assaults. for example, a 2016 study of 900 previously untested rape kits in detroit, michigan found 259 codis hits, which included stranger and non-stranger sexual assault dna profiles. sixty-nine of the hits were serial sexual assault hits, 15 of which were acquaintance (non-stranger) sexual assault cases. in a study analyzing the status of brazil's dna database in 2015, researchers found 223 matches related to 78 serial rapists. at the time, the dna database contained 650 profiles from one type of analysis of samples collected in rape kits—male autosomal str profiles—and 420 profiles from a second type of analysis—complete 23y-str profiles. barriers to use backlog rape kit backlog refers to the problem of untested sexual assault kits. the problem is twofold: it involves both the issue of rape kits not being submitted to crime labs for testing and the related issue of crime labs not having enough resources to test all of the submitted kits. one cause of the backlog of rape kits being tested is detectives and/or prosecutors failing to request a dna analysis. when someone fails to request a dna analysis, the kit sits in a police evidence storage facility untested. a rape kit is considered backlogged when it is not submitted for analysis within 10 days of the evidence being submitted. a second cause of the backlog is crime laboratory facilities receiving the rape kits and not testing them in a timely manner. the joyful heart foundation, an anti-sexual violence charity founded by actress and activist mariska hargitay, considers these kits backlogged when the kit is not analyzed within 30 days of it being sent to the lab. conservative estimates indicate there are 200,000–400,000 untested rape kits in u.s. police departments, and large stockpiles of kits have been documented in over five dozen jurisdictions, sometimes totaling more than 10,000 untested rape kits in a single city. the federal dna initiative has helped state as well as local governments to increase the ability of their dna laboratories and decrease backlogs. the actual number of untested rape kits is undefined as of 2015 because there is no nationwide system set up to keep track of the cases. this can be attributed to the lack of a common definition of backlog, which can relate to cases not worked within a month of submission, or cases that have not been submitted to the forensic labs for analysis. destruction in some locations, rape kits are destroyed before ever being tested and sometimes without notifying the victim. for victims of sexual assault in the united states, for example, the length of time for which a kit can go untested may be shorter than the statute of limitations. policies in some jurisdictions instruct that rape kits be destroyed as early as six months after they are initially stored. by contrast, the shortest statute of limitations in the us is three years, though many states do not have a statute of limitations for rape. some states, including washington and idaho, have legislation in place that requires a tracking system allowing law enforcement, medical facilities, and survivors to check the status of kits throughout the entire process, from collection to analysis and final disposition, and for survivors to be notified if a decision is made not to test a kit or to its destruction. inaccessibility victims' access to rape kits is often limited. in many locations, the non-availability of rape kits prevents victims from obtaining medico-legal evidence that would otherwise aid in the criminal investigation and prosecution of their assailant. in nigeria, for example, a study analyzing sexual assault in ile-ife found that the majority of victims went to the hospital within 24 hours of a sexual assault, but did not receive a forensic medical examination because rape kits have yet to be introduced in the country. in locations where rape kits are available, a lack of trained examiners may still impede the ability of victims to undergo timely sexual assault examinations. shortages force victims to wait hours for an exam or to travel long distances in order to have a rape kit performed within the recommended 72 hour timeframe. these effects have been seen in canada and rural america, where the shortage of examiners has recently been identified. insufficiently trained examiners may also lead to deficiencies in rape kits. a study of rape kit collection in south africa found that rape kits were sometimes inappropriately used, missing proper specimens, or missing necessary forms. the study recommended improved training of health care workers to overcome these deficiencies. cost the cost of rape kits is a barrier to use in many locations where the victim is billed for the collection of forensic evidence. collecting a rape kit reportedly costs upwards of $1,000. in some countries, reimbursement for the cost is contingent on the victim reporting the crime to police. in japan, for example, a sexual assault victim must pay for the rape kit upfront, but police will reimburse medical fees if the victim reports the assault. victims of sexual assault in the united states faced similar hurdles until the 2005 reauthorization of violence against women act (vawa), which requires states to pay for the cost of the rape kit regardless of the victim's decision to report the assault to the police. under the more recent 2013 vawa reauthorization, which took effect in march 2015, victims also cannot be required to pay the upfront cost of the exam. states may still require victims to submit claims for the rape kit exams to their personal insurance providers, as long as they are not billed for a deductible or a copay. in the united states, several organizations have pledged millions of dollars in grants to help fund the analysis of rape kits in forensic laboratories. by country republic of ireland in the republic of ireland, victims of rape and sexual assault receive a forensic exam in a sexual assault treatment unit (satu). evidence is sent to forensics science ireland (fsi), based in the phoenix park. at the end of 2018, there was a backlog of 70 cases, and it was taking up to a year for results to be released. united states in the united states, rape kit costs, availability, proper implementation of the invasive exam, and backlogs have historically presented problems for victims of rape seeking justice. as of may 2009 the federal violence against women act of 2005 went into effect, requiring state governments who wish to continue receiving federal funding to pay for "jane doe rape kits" or "anonymous rape tests". these tests allow victims too traumatized to go to the police to undergo the procedure at hospitals. the hospitals maintain the collected evidence in a sealed envelope identified only by a number, unless police access its contents upon the victim's decision to press charges. while the practice had been recommended by the federal bureau of investigation since at least 1999, and was already followed at some health clinics, colleges and hospitals, and in the state of massachusetts, many jurisdictions up until then refused to pay the estimated $800 cost of the rape examination without a police report filed by the victim. in 2011, the national institute of justice published a report, the road ahead: unanalyzed evidence in sexual assault cases, providing an overview of deep problems nationwide and the contributing factors to ongoing bureaucratic difficulties. these backlogs and delays may lead to a lack of justice for victims, the report notes, and "in worst-case scenarios...lead to additional victimization by serial offenders or the incarceration of people wrongly convicted of a crime". findings include: as an indicator of how widespread this problem has become, "18 percent of unsolved alleged sexual assaults that occurred from 2002 to 2007 contained forensic evidence that was still in police custody (not submitted to a crime lab for analysis)" one major challenge is that 43% of law enforcement agencies "do not have a computerized system for tracking forensic evidence, either in their inventory or after it is sent to the crime lab" on average, 50–60% of kits test positive for biological material that does not belong to the victim survey responses indicated that there may be some misunderstanding of the value of biological evidence. forty-four percent of the law enforcement agencies said that one of the reasons they did not send evidence to the lab was that a suspect had not been identified. fifteen percent said that they did not submit evidence because "analysis had not been requested by a prosecutor". the federal government established the combined dna index system (codis) to share dna matches among federal, state and local jurisdictions. the federal dna analysis backlog elimination act of 2000 and debbie smith act authorizations in 2004 and 2008 provide additional funding to state and local jurisdictions to help clear their rape kit testing backlogs. as of 2014, the federal government estimates a nationwide backlog of 400,000 rape kits, including many from the 1990s when evidence was collected but not tested for dna due to high costs and more primitive techniques available at the time. california according to a 2009 report by human rights watch, los angeles, california has the largest known rape kit backlog in the united states, with at least 12,669 languishing in storage facilities of the los angeles police department, los angeles county sheriff's department, and 47 independent police departments in los angeles county, and "smaller, but not inconsiderable" backlogs residing at police crime labs. these backlogs consist of both kits stored in evidence storage facilities, for which dna analysis is not requested by investigating detectives, and those submitted for testing at crime lab facilities, but which have not been tested in a timely manner. although authorities have struggled to address the backlog problem, their attempts have reportedly been hampered by funding issues and politics. as a consequence of these backlogs, assault survivors are often not informed of the status of their rape kit or their case. illinois across illinois, where law enforcement and prosecutors handle sex crimes differently, a police backlog of nearly 8,000 rape kits accumulated between 1995 and 2009, only 20% of which were tested. effective september 1, 2010, the illinois senate's sexual assault submissions act (senate bill 3269) requires law enforcement agencies to submit all evidence collected by rape kits for laboratory analysis within 180 days after the effective date of october 15, 2010, with a written notice to the state police. illinois was the first state to adopt such a law, setting a precedent for other states to follow. as of january 1, 2011, the illinois house of representatives bill 5976 addresses victims' confidentiality rights and the timely processing of rape kit evidence. both bills passed the illinois general assembly unanimously, and were signed by governor pat quinn. new york in new york state, a rape kit is also known as sexual offense evidence collection (soec) kit. as of 1999, new york city in particular harbored nearly 17,000 untested rape kits, which were eventually eliminated with outside labs. in 2007, the city opened a $290 million forensic biology lab. in 2015, the new york county district attorney's office announced that they would be awarding $38 million in grants to jurisdictions across the country in order to test backlogged rape kits. texas in texas, it is considered unnecessary to administer a rape kit after 72 hours following the attack, as it is considered unlikely for useful evidence to be collected, though other types of evidence may still be documented during the medical examination, such as survivor statements, and visible injuries such as bruises, lacerations or bite marks, through visual inspection, photographs and transcription. washington, d.c. in washington, d.c., prior to the violence against women act, which went into effect in 2009, rape kits, despite being standard issue in hospitals, have historically been difficult to obtain, according to an april 2009 report by washington