Thousands of Rape Kits Still Go Untested
Reported rapes may be at a 20-year low, according to the FBI, but tens of thousands of rape kits still go untested in police storage facilities throughout the U.S.
In 2008, 89,000 people reported that they had been raped, in comparison to 109,062 in 1992. The reason for this decline is attributed to the use of DNA evidence in identifying suspects in stranger rape cases. Rape kits, or the physical evidence from rape victims, has also contributed to solving cases.
Reported rapes may be down, but the arrest rate for rape remains at about 30 percent of reported cases, about the same as it was 20 years ago.
WeNews commentator Sarah Tofte, who is a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the following about all those untested rape kits, “Rape victims expect that when they submit to the lengthy, invasive—and sometimes traumatic—process of collecting DNA evidence from their bodies, the information will be used to try to find and prosecute their rapists.”
The testing of a rape kit can accomplish the following: the assailant can be identified, a suspect’s contact with a victim can be confirmed, a victim’s account of the crime can be corroborated, unrelated crimes can be connected and innocent suspects can be exonerated.
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