National Backlog of Untested Rape Kits

“Rape is unique. No other violent crime is so fraught with controversy, so enmeshed in dispute and in the politics of gender and sexuality… And within the domain of rape, the most highly charged area of debate concerns the issue of false allegations. For centuries, it has been asserted and assumed that women “cry rape,” that a large proportion of rape allegations are maliciously concocted for purposes of revenge or other motives.”

Although most of today’s society has not worked hard enough to put a stop to backlogs of rape kits, one organization has kept on testing them “To me, the backlog is one of the clearest and most shocking demonstrations of how we regard these crimes in our society. Testing rape kits send a fundamental and crucial message to victims of sexual violence: You matter. What happened to you matters. Your case matters-Mariska Hargitay”(What Is the Rape Kit Backlog?). Backlogging of rape kits has been going on for years, which results in no crimes being solved because none of the kits are even being tested for DNA. Sexual assault will happen every 98 seconds; therefore, rape kits pile up in crime lab storage facilities. For thousands of rape kits just

Many cases throughout time have not resulted in a conviction being made, for the sole reason that the charges exceeded the statute of limitations. The statue of limitations is defined as “the maximum amount of time allowed for a party to initiate legal proceedings”(Legal dictionary, 2016). Present day, every state is entitled to their own statute of limitations on rape and sexual assault. 34 States currently have a statutes of limitations on rape/sexual assault. Some of these states have a statute of limitations but there is a DNA exemption rule, ruling that if a DNA match is made later than the statute then that case will be exempt from the statute of limitations. Only 16 states have no statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault (Filipovic, 2016, p .A23).

This appeal evolved out of a 2006 rape case that occurred in Harford county Maryland. More than two years after the incident the victim identified Glenn Joseph Raynor, hereby known as petitioner, as a possible suspect. After departing a voluntary police interview in which petitioner ultimately declined a request for his DNA to be collected for comparison. Investigators collected DNA on swabs from the armrest of his chair. DNA analysis revealed a match from samples collected at the crime scene. After further investigation petitioner was charged and convicted of first-degree rape and related offenses.

In the United States every two minutes there is someone that is sexually assaulted. In the state of Texas, every 2 in 5 women and every 1 in 5 men have been sexually assaulted. According to TAASA.org, it is reported that “6.3 million Texans have experienced some form of sexual assault in their lifetime.” In 2011, Senate Bill 1636 was passed in Texas where it was required for rape kits to be sent to labs within 30 days. Before Senate Bill 1636, there was no law in the state of Texas that required kits to to be tested within a certain time frame. When bill 1636 was passed it was also required that there be a count on the backlog of rape kits, and it was found that there were 20,000 kits that had not been tested. After seeing that there was a

Testing all backlogged rape kits (also known as sexual assault kits) places colossal burden on government employees. Analyzing all untested rape kits stresses forensic laboratories. Ritter states that, “the demand for DNA testing continues to outstrip the capacity” (40). This information portrays that forensic laboratories that test DNA found in rape kits cannot handle any more kits, since the laboratories already have too much genetic information to test. Because the labs already have a tremendous amount of DNA to test, adding to that amount will only stress workers. Since the

The "UCR Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics" (2010) website reports that the amount of forcible rape crimes reported in California has steadily decline in the past decade. The number of rapes reported in down by nearly 3,000 reports per year since 2002. The same can not be said about the state of Oregon; the number of forcible rapes reported in Oregon since 2002 has remained between 1,140 and 1,283 each year, for the last ten years. The reason behind the steady decline in forcible rape crimes reported in California could be due in part to increased incarceration, including longer sentences; improved law enforcement strategies and DNA technology ("Progress Watch", 2014). According to "Progress Watch" (2014), “technology has given detectives powerful new tools with which to analyze blood and Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) samples or other forensic evidence, for instance” (US crime rate at lowest point in decades. Why America is safer now); DNA technology has made great strides in the fight against sexual crimes. Because the forcible rape crime rate has relatively remained the same in Oregon, it is also possible to conclude that the number of victims reporting the crime in

At the trials they had evidence that these women have not been raped based on doctor’s record. Even one of the women who yelled rape said that they were not raped. Yet they still where convicted mostly because they were

One problem is thirty-four out of fifty states have statutes of limitations on sexual assault, ranging anywhere from three to thirty years (Holter). Statutes of limitations give a victim a certain time to report the attack or press charges against their defender. Some states have the clock starting from the date of the assault, while for other states the clock starts when the crime is initially reported. An attack from many years ago can be solved with the DNA found from the suspect, but the suspect cannot be charged because the crime happened outside of the statute of limitations. A recent topic in the media is Bill Cosby being accused of rape by fifty-two women, one of the victims, Jenny Wendt, had only two weeks to press charges against Cosby because of the statutes of limitations in Indiana (Smith).

Because there are many different types of crimes, it is often difficult to find enough physical evidence to convict a person. For example, in rape cases there is usually only a small amount of physical evidence, so cases are based on word alone. Because of DNA testing we can now take samples from the victim and attempt to match the results with those of the suspect. Therefore, DNA is sometimes the only real way of determining the guilt or innocence of a suspect without having any witnesses. Since many rape cases are left unsolved, DNA testing is believed to be the most accurate way of keeping sex offenders off the street. Because of the growing trend of using DNA in rape cases especially, a company in Brooklyn now advertises a small flashlight-like device intended to be used to jab at attackers in order to collect a sample of his skin for later use (Adler). According to a study by Joseph Peterson, with the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois, DNA evidence does not have a major impact on the decision to either convict or acquit

Nevada, in general, has a lot of crime. Whether it be rape, drug-related crime, or assault, you name it, Nevada has it. Nevada’s legislature needs to take steps towards a safer Nevada, a Nevada that people can feel safe in. Passing Assembly Bill 55 would place much needed time limitations and provide funding to county agencies, making it faster to prosecute criminals and acquire evidence faster. By creating limitations on the time allowed for testing Sexual Assault Kits (SAKs), we allow for the quick apprehension of the sexual offender. By allocating funding for the reimbursement of the counties, we allow for quicker testings of SAKs and at a faster rate, due to the ability to provide more workers in the labs. While some may argue for the bill, there will always be naysayers. The supposed problems with this bill is that it requires extra funding, has two fiscal notes, and the bill, in a certain aspect, is just a bill designed to make the passing legislators show that they care and indeed are trying to do something about the issue.

Recent events revealed earlier this year have brought to light the massive backlog of untested rape kits. An increased public awareness of this backlog and approved funding has moved the issue from the back burner.

After reviewing the YouTube film Rape Kits Special: Inside the Rape Kit Collection Process Natasha Alexenko reviled her horrific event being raped at gun point as a college student. Moreover, Natasha describes in vivid detail being taken to the hospital, and having her body searched for the attacker’s DNA. The examination is commonly done by a specialized individual who is called Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE). (Rape Kits Special: Inside the Rape Kit Collection Process, 2012)

Furthermore, feminists would argue that the system is patriarchal especially in the way that judges handle rape trials systems way of handling rape cases can be said to be unjust from the way that rape cases are reported to the actual persecution of cases in 2013-14 in England and Wales, about 16,000 rapes were recorded by police, but only a third of these cases were sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. Approximately 15% of the recorded offences resulted in a charge. The actual attrition rate – meaning from reporting to conviction – is estimated at about 6%. The problem with rape cases includes the fact that for there to be a successful charge under criminal law is that guilt has to be proven beyond reasonable doubt which is arguably impossible in rape cases due to insufficient evidence. Suggestions have been mad that the need for reasonable doubt should be removed however this would cause more harm than good as it would essentially open up floodgates which would lead to floodgates meaning that innocent men or women may be imprisoned on account of false testimonies.

A rape kit comes in a cardboard box that contains blood samples from the victim along with swabbing other parts of the body. This would be taken from the victim’s skin, mouth, and private parts. They will also take fingernail clippings, fibers, head & pubic hairs; anything that could possibly lead to catching the rapist. Once the victim actually gets to the hospital the process or protocol is being asked for a forensic exam which involves written consent. It’s very important that the kit is collected between 36 and 72 hours to get best results. Really 36 hours is the best time. The process can take up to 3 hours to complete but prior to completion the victim that was raped needs to have the rape kit done. The problem being that the victim