Rape Kits

DNA testing of rape kits -- the physical evidence collected from victims' bodies -- can result in indentifying and convicting rapists even when police have no leads. The hard scientific evidence cuts through a lot of the horrific attacks on rape victims that defense lawyers often pull at trial.

And yet -- many police departments don't even process all of their rape kits, or wait so long that the statute of limitations expires. The National Institute of Justice estimates that 400,000 rape kits sit untested nationwide. Human Rights Watch reported that in Los Angeles, which has the nation's worst backlog, 12,669 untested rape kits are sitting in storage, nearly 10 years backlog. The arrest rate for reported rapes has dropped from 30% in 1999 to 25% in 2007.

I simply can't understand this. Police excuses are weak at best -- tight budgets, mumblings rape cases being complicated. Some bloggers are too quick to cry sexism over minor issues, but I don't know what else could explain this. (Ideas, anyone?)

After a rape victim testified about this issue before Congress in 2001, money was appropriated to help clear the backlog and beef up DNA labs. But rape is consistently de-prioritized compared to other crimes. The law was amended to let the money be used for any crime, and half the states have not even spent all of their money.

The weird thing is that, unlike most political issues, this has a simple solution: test the rape kits promptly. New York City eliminated its backlog of 16,000 rape kits in 3 years, and found over 2,000 "cold hits" -- matches to otherwise unsuspected criminals -- as a result. It also adopted policies to make sure that kits are processed within 60 days of collection. The arrest rate for reported cases of rape went up from 40% to 70%.

Thanks to HRW researcher Sarah Tofte and Nicholas Kristoff of the NYT for bringing this to light. Why hasn't it been picked up more? Why aren't politicians, right and left, tackling this obvious law-and-order problem with an easy fix?

If there was ever an issue worth contacting your Senator or Congressperson about, this is it. Insist they follow researcher Sarah Tofte's recommendations: 1) Require at least 30% of the DNA testing grants go to rape kits; 2) require states to report how many kits they processed, and how many are backlogged; and 3) allow states to pay private labs for DNA testing.

And press your local police department on whether they have a backlog, and why.