South Bend YWCA Fights Against Rape

No one likes the idea that someone "gets away" with rape, so this is good news out of Fox28.

Daria Walsh says, "52 year old women should not be raped in their own home, drugged and raped in their own home."

And although she says she tried to press charges, her case will probably never see the inside of a courtroom because of lack of evidence.

YWCA Executive Director, Linda Baechle says that's very common.

Linda Baechle says, "It's not right when you see how little happens to the rapist in a court of law and how few women actually see something happen with their rape case."

She believes it's one of the main reasons the number of alleged rapes in South Bend is so high.

Linda Baechle says, "They're not locked up for any length of time and people are seeing they're getting away with it and it's certainly not an effective crime deterrent and it doesn't make women any safer on our streets."

So to try and deal with the problem, the YWCA has started a new program called court watch.

They send volunteers into local courtrooms to document the outcome of rape cases and publish the findings.

Linda Baechle says, "We can look at it, not just what's wrong with this picture, but also how can we do this better."