WARNING: This story describes details of sexual abuse.
Hers isn’t a household name but in the 1970s, Martha Goddard created one of the most powerful tools ever invented to bring criminals to justice.
It was a period of great social change, spurred on by the women’s liberation movement, increased opportunities in the workforce and Roe v Wade, which guaranteed the nationwide right to an abortion.
But a silent epidemic was happening in plain sight. Goddard was working at Metro Help, a Chicago crisis hotline, answering calls from teenage runaways who had left home after being sexually abused.
“I was just beside myself when I found the extent of the problem,” Goddard told an interviewer in…