If you are in danger right now, call your local emergency number. Escrow is not an emergency service.
Is it too late to report in Chicago?
Probably not.
What we have read for Chicago says a report is accepted long after the day it happened. The full wording is below, with the source. Years late is still a report.
Checked against official sources on 29 August 2026.
the deadline in Chicago, quoted in full
Illinois has no statute of limitations for criminal sexual assault, so you can report at any time, even years later. If you have an evidence kit collected without reporting, you have up to 10 years to decide whether to release it for testing.
We quote this rather than shorten it. A shortened deadline is a wrong deadline, and this is the sentence a lawyer would want to read.
2 different clocks
The exam window runs in hours. The deadline runs in years.
the exam window in Chicago
Illinois hospitals must give free emergency medical and forensic exams under the Sexual Assault Survivors Emergency Treatment Act. That includes up to 90 days of free follow-up care. Evidence collection kits can be done up to 7 days after an assault, though DNA is best preserved within 72 hours.
This is the clock that runs out fast. You can be examined without deciding whether to go to the police.
the limitation period
This is the deadline for the case itself — how long the law gives before a prosecution can no longer be brought. It is usually many years for rape, and often longer or unlimited when the survivor was a child.
Missing the exam window does not mean the limitation period has passed. They are separate clocks.
where to report in Chicago
Call 911 or go to any Chicago Police Department station to report a sexual assault, and officers will forward it to the right jurisdiction. You can also start at a hospital emergency room, where staff must offer to call an advocate from Resilience, Chicago's rape crisis center.
if the deadline has passed
A closed case is not the same as no record.
If the period above has run out where you are, a prosecution may no longer be possible. That is the plain truth and we will not dress it up. 3 things are still open to you.
a timestamped report
What you write here is dated and kept. Years later, a record that existed before anyone asked for it carries weight a memory does not.
a sealed report that can match
Seal it against an identifier — a profile link, a phone, a workplace. Nobody sees it until someone else names the same person. Their case may still be inside the deadline.
a pin on the map
Publish it and the next person searching Chicago can see it. He stays an alias unless a court, the police or the press have already published his name.
Many countries also treat the clock differently when the survivor was a child, when the offence is ongoing, or when new evidence appears. A support organisation in this list can tell you whether that applies to you.
who can tell you today
People in Chicago who do this every day.
These are independent of Escrow. They know how the deadline is read in practice where you are, and they can also just talk.
Resilience Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline
Resilience central office
sources
The deadline above came from one of these.
- Sexual Assault
Cook County State's Attorney's Office · checked 29 August 2026
- Sexual Assault Survivors Emergency Treatment Act
Illinois Department of Public Health · checked 29 August 2026
- Programs & Services
Resilience (Chicago rape crisis center) · checked 29 August 2026
other places
The deadline somewhere else.
If you were somewhere else in the United States, read the deadline for the United States. It covers the towns we have not written up yet.
- Is it too late in Atlanta?
- Is it too late in Boston?
- Is it too late in Denver?
- Is it too late in Houston?
- Is it too late in Los Angeles?
- Is it too late in Miami?
- Is it too late in New York City?
- Is it too late in Philadelphia?
- Is it too late in Australia?
- Is it too late in Bangladesh?
- Is it too late in Brazil?
- Is it too late in Canada?
- Is it too late in Colombia?
- Is it too late in Egypt?
- Is it too late in India?
- Is it too late in Indonesia?
This is information, not legal advice.
Nobody here is your lawyer. The deadline above is quoted from a source we read, and the date we read it is beside it. Laws change, and an office may read a deadline differently from the statute. For your own case, ask a lawyer or a support organisation in Chicago.
If something here is out of date, write to hello@escrow.nanocorp.app and we will check it and say when we did.
when you are ready
There is no deadline for writing it down here. A report on Escrow can be made years afterwards, and nothing happens until you say so.
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