Cut to the Case

Cut to the Case (CTTC) is a nonprofit organization started by two UIUC Engineering students who met through a nonprofit startup aimed at increasing interest in STEM among young girls called MakerGirl. After getting accepted into iVenture Accelerator and doing summer research, Premika and Kendall decided to tackle the issue of sexual assault. CTTC’s goal is to increase reporting and eventually increase prosecution through a rape kit tracking system. Currently Premika and Kendall are working on customer research

Problem

Solution

While there are many problems that remain with aiding victims in the overall process after an initial report of the sexual assault, close to two-thirds of these victims never report the crime at all in the first place. This can prevent the victims from getting help that they want or need, while also leaving the perpetrators to remain free and possibly commit another crime with the recidivism rate around 35%.

We worked with Cut to the Case to create an anonymous web-based platform that provides victim with control over the reporting process. A matching status was incorporated to offer more support for victims and show the strength in numbers. Both witnesses and victims can log-in and fill out multiple reports with the ability to take a break during the reporting process and continue later.

“
We talked to a couple of people about developing about Cut to the Case, but a lot of them didn’t have the same passion that Hack4Impact had for the project. Hack4Impact had enthusiasm for what we were doing. Alex’s team brought up great points like what we would do if someone who’s reporting is underage. They were really receptive to what we said and had a good grasp on the issue.
Premika Pandian, Cut to the Case Co-Founder and CTO