New hope for rape kit testing advocates

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30554719

New hope for rape kit testing advocates

Testing old and forgotten rape kits has not been a priority for US police, but a surprising number of arrests and prosecutions across several major cities working on their backlog has advocates hoping other police departments will finally tackle their own untested caches.

When Detroit prosecutors and state police toured a large storage warehouse in 2009, they made a startling discovery - more than 11,000 untested rape kits, each representing a report to the police and a lengthy hospital visit to collect evidence.

Armed with a large grant by the National Institute of Justice, prosecutors and Detroit police have now completed testing of 2,000 of those kits and are in the process of testing another 8,000.

The testing, as of October, has produced more than 750 DNA matches to a national database managed by the FBI known as Codis.

Investigations of these matches are ongoing, but so far the Wayne County prosecutor's office - which includes Detroit - has produced warrants for 23 alleged rapists and convicted 14 of them, with three awaiting trial.

The office, run by the county's top prosecutor, Kym Worthy, has also identified 188 serial rapists from the processed kits who have committed crimes in 27 other states.

Detroit is not alone, however. Amid a reinvigorated call to test the estimated hundreds of thousands of rape kits in police storage across America, other US cities are also seeing dramatic results - a high number of previously unidentified serial rapists and dozens of unsolved cases going to prosecution.

(continued)

[pErvinalia]

I don't get this. If charges weren't pressed, then how can they convict these people? If charges were pressed, how is it that the rape kits weren't tested??

[cronus]

I don't get this. If charges weren't pressed, then how can they convict these people? If charges were pressed, how is it that the rape kits weren't tested??

Old kits new tests. Easy to misunderstand the title also?

[pErvinalia]

the article says they are "untested".

[cronus]

the article says they are "untested".

You mean the kits are untested?

[pErvinalia]

Yeah. So my initial question remains. If they are untested, why were they untested? Was it because no charges were being laid, therefore there was no need (and should still be no need) to test the kits, or were they untested despite charges being laid? If the latter, how the hell did that ever come to pass??

[cronus]

Yeah. So my initial question remains. If they are untested, why were they untested? Was it because no charges were being laid, therefore there was no need (and should still be no need) to test the kits, or were they untested despite charges being laid? If the latter, how the hell did that ever come to pass??

Maybe they knew the limits of their technology for tests and these items did not meet the minimum requirements at the time?

[pErvinalia]

That sounds highly unlikely. How would they know the test had limitations if the technologies wasn't there to determine if they were accurate or not?

[Hermit]

Jurisdictions often cite lack of resources and personnel as the largest barrier to processing more rape kits. Another, less frequently acknowledged, cause of the backlog is unwillingness among many law enforcement agencies to prioritize and dedicate sufficient resources to sexual assault cases. Members of law enforcement frequently disbelieve or even blame victims of sexual assault. Despite data proving otherwise, many agencies also maintain the philosophy that testing a rape kit is only useful when a stranger committed the assault. Some do not fully understand the value of rape kit testing.

From endthebacklog

[piscator]

Presumption of innocence and due process, combined with lower than average witness reliability likely account for the low rate of prosecutorial success, hence interest, in expending top resources on all but strong rape and sexual assault cases. Moreover, victims often have better chance to be repaired (somewhat) in civil courts.


I have a daughter, btw.

[pErvinalia]

Is she hot?

(Hermit wants to know)

[piscator]

She's a lead designer for Patagonia, is married to the owner-of-record of my $3m boat, and is carrying my grandchild. But if you think you're packing the gear to make her happier, pm me.

[pErvinalia]

[Warren Dew]

Yeah. So my initial question remains. If they are untested, why were they untested? Was it because no charges were being laid, therefore there was no need (and should still be no need) to test the kits, or were they untested despite charges being laid? If the latter, how the hell did that ever come to pass??

Lazy or underfunded police departments and prosecutors' offices.

[JimC]

Yeah. So my initial question remains. If they are untested, why were they untested? Was it because no charges were being laid, therefore there was no need (and should still be no need) to test the kits, or were they untested despite charges being laid? If the latter, how the hell did that ever come to pass??

Lazy or underfunded police departments and prosecutors' offices.

Those possibilities seems likely to me, but there is a big difference between the 2 potential reasons, even if, in practice, they have the same result.