The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "rapist" ...
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Testing the System: Justice for Rape Victims
Thousands of rape victims in Colorado were victimized twice – once by their attacker and again by a system failing to utilize a crucial piece of evidence, a rape kit. Our investigation revealed the vast majority of rape kits police collected were never tested and the painful process a victim endures to provide the evidence is often in vain. Our story immediately prompted change. One department changed its policy and is testing old rape kits that should have been tested years ago. State lawmakers are filing bills to require rape kit testing. These changes have led to more thorough rape investigations in police departments and could ultimately prevent a rapist from striking again.
Tags: rape; rape victims; rape kits; police; criminal justice system; broadcast
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Intersecting Lives
Twenty years after a Kansas man was wrongfully convicted of a rape, a Lawrence Journal-World investigation revealed the real rapist, finally bringing closure to the victim and the wrongfully convicted man.
Tags: Crime; rape; wrongful convictions
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Sexual Assault on Campus: A Frustrating Search for Justice
As part of a collaborative effort with the Investigative News Network, the Center for Public Integrity finds that students responsible for sexual assault on college campuses often receive no punishment, yet their victims' lives are turned upside down. Even when the perpetrator is a repeat offender, college judicial systems rarely expel the student.
Tags: sexual assault; rape; victim; perpetrator; sex crime; rapist; rape victim; rape on campus; rape in college
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Campus Sexual Assault: A Culture of Indifference
The stories explored the "culture of indifference" that many college women report experiencing after being sexually assaulted. Many schools across the country are in denial about the scope of the problem and the systems in place for women to report assaults are often barely existent at many campuses. Victims in the story tell their stories and explain how their school's handling of their assault cases only made things worse.
Tags: sexual assault; culture of indifference; rape; date rape; rapist; college; university
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The Second Rape
This is the story about two young rape victims in athe small town of Bjasta in the norther part of Sweden. Although the rapist was convicted, people in the town began to blame the victims. Despite DNA-evidence, almost everyone thinks that the girls are lying.
Tags: rape; criminal conviction; sexual assault
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Rape in America: Justice Denied
The investigation reveals “over 200,000 rape kits” were being stored at police departments. These rape kits had never been sent to the crime lab. The second half of the investigation revealed that even when rape kits were sent to the lab, it sometimes took months or even years to be examined and processed. This backlog causes the rapist to run free and the victim to fear for their lives.
Tags: crimes; law enforcement; arrest; suspect; major cities; results; tests; criminal justice system
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Doubts About Cassey
Over the course of a decade, AIDS activist Cassey Weierbach told her tragic story of contracting HIV from a man who raped her. The local people in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley helped her when she needed it, as they "held her hand when she was laid up in a hospital bed. They’ve cooked her meals and done her laundry. They’ve passed the plate for her on Sunday and paid her rent when it was overdue." But a pastor revealed her accusation that Weierbach did not have AIDS, and was deceiving everyone. Others questioned the veracity of Weierbach's story, as it also included details of a best friend, the alleged rapist's daughter and also a rape victim of the same man, shooting herself in front of Weierbach. Weierbach also claimed her father died in a famous plane crash. Both individuals were still alive and well, and quoted for the story. The Morning Call tells the story of a community and a woman who may or may not have been telling the truth about an affliction with a terrible disease. In the wake of the story, Weierbach was charged with defrauding the state of $67,000 worth of medical benefits.
Tags: AIDS; HIV; Munchausen syndrome; fake illness; fraud; medical fraud
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Delay on DNA Frees Girl's Rapist
A trucker in Florida raped a 13 year old girl, went to trial, and was aquitted because there was no DNA proof. But the DNA test proved he committed the crime five weeks after he was seen as not guilty by a jury. With mounds of evidence against him, Kenneth Robinson was able to avoid jail because the judge's order for a DNA test was not carried through.
Tags: rape; sexual assault; DNA; child abuse; molestation; Kenneth Robinson; Gary Barrett
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Predators Among Us
This is a series of stories concerning sexual predators in Florida and how the state's program for screening, confining, and treating sexual offenders is failing.
Tags: Sexual Predators; rape; Jimmy Ryce Act; sexual misconduct; Florida Correctional sytem; sexual offender; rapist; sex crime
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In Pursuit of a Sexual Predator
A narrative account of a bungled hunt for one of Louisville's most prolific serial rapists, a manipulative predator who attacked 14 women over four years and escaped detection in part because of sloppy police and turf battles. Evidence was lost in some cases and in others rape kits weren't processed to save money. The newspaper's account showed how a single detective who believed the crimes were connected was able to convince his supervisors they were linked and how he reopened cases that others had closed for lack of evidence.
Tags: rape; sexual predator; police; Louisville; Kentucky; lost evidence; serial rapist; Open Records Act