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 Houston?
Probably not.
What we have read for Houston 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 31 August 2026.
the deadline in Houston, quoted in full
Texas has no time limit on prosecuting sexual assault if biological evidence was collected and DNA-tested. The same is true if the accused is believed to have assaulted 5 or more people. Otherwise the prosecution of a sexual assault on an adult generally has to begin within 10 years, under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 12.01.
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 Houston
Texas hospitals provide the forensic exam free of charge. The forensic cost is billed to the Office of the Attorney General. You should never be billed for one. Go as soon as you can, because evidence degrades with time. We have not found an official Texas source that sets the outer limit for collecting it. Ask the Houston Area Women's Center hotline, which is answered 24 hours a day.
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 Houston
Call 911 in an emergency. To file a report or follow one up, contact the Houston Police Department's Special Victims Division, which investigates adult sex crimes. Or call the non-emergency line on 713-884-3131. You can also start at a hospital emergency room. An advocate from the Houston Area Women's Center can meet you there, or talk to you on the phone.
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 Houston 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 Houston 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.
HAWC Sexual Assault Hotline (Houston Area Women's Center)
National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN)
sources
The deadline above came from one of these.
- Special Victims Division
Houston Police Department · checked 31 August 2026
- Family Violence Division
Houston Police Department · checked 31 August 2026
- HAWC - 24/7 Hotlines
Houston Area Women's Center · checked 31 August 2026
- Sexual Assault Exams
Texas Office of the Attorney General · checked 31 August 2026
- Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 12.01 Felonies
Justia (Texas statute text) · checked 31 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 Chicago?
- Is it too late in Denver?
- 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 Houston.
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.
Was this hard to find anywhere else? Answer 7 questions and the count becomes public. No name, no email.