“In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous…”

Sometimes I am guilty of watching "Law & Order: SVU"(one of the most entertaining shows on TV) and forgetting that the storyline is probably based on a true story. So, that sick perpetrator was most likely a real criminal and some details of the crime have been changed for the show.

I love watching Mariska Hargitay’s character, Olivia Benson, and her drive to always do the right thing for the victims of sexual assault. If you watch the show, you know the criminal justice system is not portrayed to always give the best outcome for the victims.

Hargitay has been playing Olivia Benson for 19 years, and recently something unusual happened. She told NBC News that she began receiving several letters from actual victims of sexual assault, describing their stories and how nothing was being done to catch their rapist.

Hargitay says, “I just remember thinking ‘I need to respond.'”

She began a mission to help these victims by teaming up with a Detroit-based lawyer, Kim Worthy, to make a documentary. I am Evidence sheds light on how common it is for sexual assault victims to be forgotten.

It is a sad reality that many women who report assaults give DNA evidence, also known as a rape kit, but the evidence is never tested.

These women are hoping that the DNA evidence they give will be tested and will lead to their rapists being put in jail. But too often, that important evidence is just filed on shelves and abandoned for years.

Thanks to the work Hargitay and Kim Worthy have done to get the abandoned rape kits tested, there have been 850 serial rapists identified. But still, there are 400,000 untested rape kits sitting on shelves.

The work is far from over, but what Hargitay’s documentary has done so far is show that these stories mean something to someone. Someone is listening to them. Someone cares about them. Someone believes them. Someone is getting them the justice they deserve.