With considerable fanfare this week, Gov. Patrick J. Quinn signed into law a measure to improve rape investigations by Illinois authorities. But it came too late for women like Christina.

After a night out with a friend and the friend’s boyfriend in April 2007, Christina went with the pair to the friend’s Hyde Park apartment to sleep on the living room couch. When she was alone, she said, the boyfriend came into the room, pushed her roughly to the floor and raped her.

Christina said she was upset and concerned about medical costs so she waited two days before she went to the University of Chicago Medical Center. She reported the rape, and waited nearly all night for a rape kit, which preserves evidence after a sexual assault. A nurse noted signs of forced penetration in her medical records.

The next day, Christina called the detective who had interviewed her and written her report and asked how long it would take to get results from the rape kit. Two weeks, he told her.