Challenging the Myths of Sexual Assault | Rachel Lovell | TEDxAkron

Dr. Rachel Lovell a Senior Research Associate at Case Western Research University and is the lead researcher on the multi-year study of untested rape kits in Cuyahoga County.  For this research, to date, Dr. Lovell and her team have extensively examined over 500 of these rape kits, spanning over 20 years of time for cases that were never prosecuted.  They are also researching what is working and what isn’t working about this process. In her talk, she is going to share some key lessons they have learned from extensively looking into these sexual assault kit cases – for the purposes of improving future practice and policy.  Much of the findings are challenging myths of sexual assault.  

Rachel Lovell, PhD, is sociologist and methodologist who studies gender-based violence and victimization, in particular sexual assault, human sex trafficking and sex work, and intimate partner violence. Her current research involves examining the unsubmitted (“backlogged”) sexual assault kits in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and specialized dockets for human sex trafficking victims. She is a Senior Research Associate at the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Lovell received her Ph.D. in sociology from The Ohio State University in 2007. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx