In the 2nd episode of Rape, the Podcast, I talk with a victim of rape who went through the reporting system one time and was spit out dirty. When she was raped again, she refused to press charges. Also in this episode, Springfield Police Chief Paul Wiliams apologizes to victims whose rape kits were destroyed; and I talk with a friend I went to high school with about the rape she experienced and how it's affected her life. If we just keep blaming this on the system we will never be able to trust it. We need to look deeper into our communities for answers so sexual assault survivors can live free of the stigma.  Rape, the Podcast is produced by Chickedits.

I kick off the first episode with the CNN story that got me thinking about how our community of Springfield, Missouri responds to rape. Hundreds of rape kits, trashed by the Springfield Police Department years ago exposed at https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/investigates/police-destroyed-rapekits/. I want to help desensitize this topic so that we can freely talk about rape and work together as a community to respect victims, help them get justice, and deter it from even happening. I’m holding everyone in Springfield, Missouri accountable. Produced by Chickedits, which I forget to mention in the podcast.

Please contact me at [email protected] if you would like to contribute or add to the conversation of this podcast. Thank you for your support! Together, we can!

I'm Julie Belew (aka Julie Barry from my radio days) and I am producing a podcast about how my community of Springfield, Missouri responds and supports (or doesn't support) victims of sexual assault. An article from CNN exposed some pretty awful practices by the Springfield Police Department but because of the article, a sexual assault task force was formed, I'm hoping to keep our town accountable so that survivors will have better experiences than they had before.