| Updated: Feb. 27, 2021, 12:22 a.m.
Over the past several years, Utah has taken significant steps toward bolstering the support available to survivors of rape and sexual violence.
That includes ensuring rape kits aren’t left sitting on shelves, increasing training for first responders and the nurses who interact with victims, expanding support and mental health services, and advocacy as cases progress through the law enforcement system.
Even those who work in this area every day will acknowledge the system isn’t perfect and sometimes people are let down or frustrated with how they are treated, but it has improved and is getting better.
Bill that supporters say would fill gap for rape victims in Utah law fails in committee
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Bill that supporters say would fill gap for rape victims in Utah law fails in committee
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Editor’s note • Those who are experiencing intimate partner violence, or know someone who is, are urged to call the Utah Domestic Violence Link Line, 1-800-897-LINK (5465), or the Utah Rape and Sexual Assault Crisis Line, 1-888-421-1100.
When Lara Wilson met her now-ex-boyfriend on a dating app in 2016, she said, “he seemed like he was perfect.”
“Our first months together were wonderful,” the Layton resident said. “At that time, I had no reason to suspect that he had a history of violence.”
That later changed, she told state lawmakers Tuesday. He began shoving her, and she eventually learned about his previous domestic violence conviction. Shortly after that, Wilson said, he fractured both of her eye sockets, just before she became pregnant.