CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) — Jackson County’s top prosecutor is vowing to devote more resources to rape investigations and to work more closely with victims’ advocates. The pledge comes after a newspaper investigation found that a fraction of sex assaults reported to police go to trial. The Belleville News-Democrat investigation found that 87 percent of felony sex crimes reported to police in the county from 2005 through 2013 never reached a courtroom. The News-Democrat’s analysis of sex crime prosecutions across 32 counties in southern Illinois found that overall, 70 percent of the reports of sexual assault, rape and sexual abuse weren’t prosecuted. Jackson County State’s Attorney Mike Carr told the newspaper that his office is using an $80,000 grant to rely on computer data to better track reported sex crimes.

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