As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a fierce advocate for the prompt reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, Senator Coons commended a new report on improving police response to sexual assault.
The recent study, released by the Police Executive Research Forum, focused on the progress being made in investigating and prosecuting sex crimes. Chris believes this type of research is an example of the “force multiplier” effect the Violence Against Women Act has in our communities. Although the legislation did not fund the new report, VAWA builds on the latest techniques in law enforcement and officer training to reduce the incidence of domestic violence.
The report, conducted with support from the Motorola Solutions Foundation at the direction of PERF President Charles Ramsey, highlights the importance of updating the definition of forcible rape used in the Uniform Crime Reporting system. It also includes discussion of unwarranted “unfounding” of sexual assault cases, special considerations for serial rapist cases, differences in the handling of sexual assaults on college and university campuses and DNA issues in sexual assault investigations, such as the DNA backlog of rape kits.
For more on Chris’ work on the Violence Against Women Act, please click here.
For more on his work as a member of the Judiciary Committee, click here.