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In US, DC Police Improve Response to Sexual Assaults
 Photo © 2012 Mariam Dwedar/Human Rights Watch
Although the man held a knife to her throat when he tried to rape her, Eleanor managed to escape. When she reported the attack to Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police, she thought the worst was over – but that was before the police refused to consider the attack an “attempted sexual assault.” Nothing she said could convince them otherwise. She felt betrayed by the people whose job it was to protect her, and she lost her faith in law enforcement. Her attacker remained at large.
For nearly two years, Human Rights Watch investigated how Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) handles sexual assault cases like Eleanor’s. The MPD responded to our findings, laid out in the report Capitol Offense, by changing certain aspects of its sexual assault investigations. Because of these improvements, today’s assault survivors have a better chance of being taken seriously by police.
But more changes are needed to secure justice for the victims.
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| | | VIDEO |  | |  | | | “I started to feel like a victimbecause of my interactions with police,” said Eleanor, who successfully fought off a rape attempt. Hear her story >> |
| | | LET THEM PLAY | | |  | | | In Saudi Arabia, millions of women and girls are still banned from taking part in sport in state schools. View Now >> |
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