type of analysis—complete 23Y-STR profiles. Barriers to use Backlog Rape kit backlog refers to the problem of untested sexual assault kits. The problem is twofold: it involves both the issue of rape kits not being submitted to crime labs for testing and the related issue of crime labs not having enough resources to test all of the submitted kits. One cause of the backlog of rape kits being tested is detectives and/or prosecutors failing to request a DNA analysis. When someone fails to request a DNA analysis, the kit sits in a police evidence storage facility untested. A rape kit is considered backlogged when it is not submitted for analysis within 10 days of the evidence being submitted. A second cause of the backlog is crime laboratory facilities receiving the rape kits and not testing them in a timely manner. The Joyful Heart Foundation, an anti-sexual violence charity founded by actress and activist Mariska Hargitay, considers these kits backlogged when the kit is not analyzed within 30 days of it being sent to the lab. Conservative estimates indicate there are 200,000–400,000 untested rape kits in U.S. police departments, and large stockpiles of kits have been documented in over five dozen jurisdictions, sometimes totaling more than 10,000 untested rape kits in a single city. The federal DNA Initiative has helped state as well as local governments to increase the ability of their DNA laboratories and decrease backlogs. The actual number of untested rape kits is undefined because there is no nationwide system set up to keep track of the cases. This can be attributed to the lack of a common definition of backlog, which can relate to cases not worked within a month of submission, or cases that have not been submitted to the forensic labs for analysis. Destruction In some locations, rape kits are destroyed before ever being tested and sometimes without notifying the victim. For victims of sexual assault in the United States, for example, the length of time for which a kit can go untested may be shorter than the statute of limitations. Policies in some jurisdictions instruct that rape kits be destroyed as early as six months after they are initially stored. By contrast, the shortest statute of limitations in the US is three years, though many states do not have a statute of limitations for rape. Some states, including Washington and Idaho, have legislation in place