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 Washington, DC?
Probably not.
What we have read for Washington, DC 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 Washington, DC, quoted in full
Washington, DC has no time limit on prosecuting sexual abuse in the first, second, third or fourth degree, child sexual abuse or incest. Most other felonies generally have to be prosecuted within 6 years, under DC Code Section 23-113.
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 Washington, DC
Medical forensic exams are free and available 24 hours a day at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. If you report to the police, your kit goes to the DC Department of Forensic Sciences within 7 days for testing. If you do not report, DC Forensic Nurse Examiners store it for up to 2 years while you decide. Go as soon as you can. No official DC source we could find sets the outer limit for collecting evidence. Ask them when you call.
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 Washington, DC
Call 911, or contact the Metropolitan Police Department's Sexual Assault Unit at 202-727-3700, to report a sexual assault. You can also call the DC Victim Hotline at 1-844-443-5732. Or go to MedStar Washington Hospital Center's emergency department. There DC Forensic Nurse Examiners (DCFNE) provide free care, whether or not you choose to make a police report.
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 Washington, DC 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 Washington, DC 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.
DC Rape Crisis Center Hotline
Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC)
National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN)
sources
The deadline above came from one of these.
- Sexual Assault Resources
Metropolitan Police Department · checked 31 August 2026
- Free and confidential forensic exams in Washington, D.C.
DC Forensic Nurse Examiners · checked 31 August 2026
- Section 23-113, Limitations on actions for criminal violations
D.C. Law Library, DC Council · checked 31 August 2026
- DC Rape Crisis Center
DC Rape Crisis Center · 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 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 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 Washington, DC.
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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