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2020 Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Limited Series finalist

The Provability Gap

Why Sexual Assault Cases Are So Hard to Prosecute in Austin

 

About the Project

Travis County law enforcement officers responded to more than 600 adult sexual assault allegations in 2017, according to the district attorney’s office. Only one person was found guilty by a jury. KUT’s Nadia Hamdan wanted to find out why it was so hard to prosecute these cases in Austin and Central Texas.

Nadia spent eight months interviewing survivors, detectives, prosecutors and scholars for her four-part series, “The Provability Gap.” Approached from the perspectives of the victim, the police, the prosecutor and the public, each section fleshed out the many problems that can arise at every step of the judicial process.

At the end, the series made evident the short comings of the current system and how much has to be done to make it “survivor-focused.”