R@pe Kit Testing Backlog Thwarts Justice for Victims

[Ben Lahnger]

Ben - I saw this report on the ABC World News Tonight broadcast and it was just gut-wrenching. The text below is excerpted from the larger article at the SOURCE link below.


R@pe Kit Testing Backlog Thwarts Justice for Victims

Lawmakers Seek Rules and Funds for Faster DNA Testing After Sexual Assaults

SOURCE

When Valerie Neumann woke up dazed and physically bruised the morning after her 21st birthday, the awful reality began to sink in that she had been r@ped. Neumann then made the difficult decision many sexual assault victims make -- to submit to the ordeal of a r@pe kit at her local hospital.

Testifying before a House panel today, Neumann described how for six hours, a specially trained nurse fleeced her body, pulling hairs, swabbing her thighs and vagina, and taking pictures of bruises and scratch marks on her back. The nurse placed the evidence in a series of sterile envelopes and sent the kit to law enforcement for DNA testing.

"Although I just wanted to pretend nothing happened, I knew what I needed to do," Neumann told the House panel. "It was very hard to go through. My only consolation was that this exam could be used to put my rapist behind bars."

But three years, five months and four days later, Neumann's kit remains untouched and her rapist uncharged after prosecutors told her they didn't have the funds or enough of a legal case to justify having her r@pe kit tested.

"I used to believe in our justice system," Neumann said. "But after my experience … I can honestly say that if I were r@ped again, I don't know that I would choose to go to the hospital and be put through a r@pe kit again."

Today, advocates for sexual assault victims called Neumann's testimony alarming and indicative of fallout from the broader national r@pe kit testing backlog. They pressed federal lawmakers to enact legislation to help fix the problem.

Neumann's untested r@pe kit is one of an estimated 180,000 kits completed each year whose potential evidence, which could validate a woman's claims, identify an attacker or exonerate a suspect, loiters on shelves and in warehouses.

Nationwide, crime labs saw their DNA testing backlog double from the beginning to the end of 2005, the most recent year for which data is available, according to a 2008 report by the Census of Publicly Funded Crime Laboratories.

Experts said testing centers would need to increase their staffs by 73 percent to meet demand. Some law enforcement officials said they don't have the funds or testing infrastructure to meet demand.

"Because of limited capacities, laboratories are forced to prioritize their cases based upon court dates and whether or not a suspect has been identified," said Christian Hassell, assistant director of the FBI laboratory division. "This oftentimes leaves those cases for which there are no suspects ... unanalyzed in evidence or laboratory storage."

It costs between $900 and $1,000 to process and test a r@pe kit, according to Jeffrey Boschwitz, president of Orchid Cellmark, one of the largest providers of DNA testing.

The federal government helps cities and states foot the bill through grants to local law enforcement agencies through the Debbie Smith Act, but it does not require states to report or enforce efforts to prevent a backlog of r@pe kit testing. Some of the funds have also gone unspent, because the law stipulates they cannot be used to hire staff.

Lawmakers pledged today to enact revisions to the law.

"We don't know how many Valerie Neumans there are," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. "If you [states] want to get the help of the federal government to do law enforcement, then you have to come clean about the situation."

Weiner has proposed a law that would require grant recipients to collect DNA samples from all convicted felons in prisons and meet benchmarks for clearing r@pe kit backlogs. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., has introduced separate, similar legislation.

Experts said the r@pe kit backlog could be exacerbated by the attitudes of local law enforcement toward sexual assault crimes.

"Half the cops don't even treat the [r@pe] kits seriously," said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich..

Prosecutor Kym Worthy of Wayne County, Mich., said police chiefs in her area don't appear to care about the backlog or fully understand the importance of the evidence r@pe kits can yield.

In her locality, Worthy said there are more than 12,000 unprocessed kits, and that the numbers are climbing. She said some of the kits "have been sitting for over 10 years, so the victims are revictimized."

But studies show that r@pe kits are effective in prosecuting crimes.

"Studies have shown that when a r@pe kit is collected, tested and contains offender DNA, it is significantly more likely that the case will be prosecuted than in cases where no r@pe kit is collected," said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va.

"Without forensic evidence, juries question the case, they question the prosecution, even though it may exist. Juries never understand [in cases] where a r@pe kit has been performed, why it's not in the courtroom," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas. More tests will cost more money, he said, "but so what.

Ben - So I'm glad the politicians are getting behind this and want to do something, but I found four things troubling about this report, three of which are not in the printed online article and were revealed in the televised report:

1) I think it's incredibly disheartening that in the year 2010, we are talking about the fact that a large number of law enforcement officers need an education with regards to a basic tool that they should be using to help catch and convict criminals.

2) It's a crying shame to learn that in some states victims are BILLED thousands of dollars to have the evidence for a r@pe kit collected. In fact, it seems immoral to me.

3) In Detroit alone, they found over 12,000 r@pe kits sitting on shelves, never opened and untested. forgotten in the now closed Detroit crime lab. That is worse than a backlog, because a backlog suggests that people are working on it.

4) Finally, some r@pe kits sit on shelves untested for so long that the statute of limitations runs out on the original crime. And that is just criminal.

[Saya]

I remember when I watched crime shows on A&E, I can't remember if it was Cold Case Files or American Justice, but anyway there was this woman who was ***** and it was eight years before they tested for DNA, they found her rapist....and they couldn't prosecute because it was past the statute of limitations. So she now knows who he is, he was in jail for **** when they found out it was him, but there's nothing anyone can do about it. I think they changed the law since because of that case, if you have DNA evidence the statute is extended, but I can't remember if it was a federal law or state.

And yeah, charging people for their **** kits is insane, you don't charge someone for dusting for prints when their house gets broken into, why would you do that to a victim of a violent crime? I heard that one of the reasons for this is that social conservatives do not want to pay for the morning after pill, which is offered to **** victims after exams. They don't cost 1,200 dollars though.

[ape descendant]

There is a sad truth.. that there are people out there who don't think of **** as a serious crime.... these people.. are assholes.

[BlackGnosis]

Originally Posted by ape descendant

There is a sad truth.. that there are people out there who don't think of **** as a serious crime.... these people.. are assholes.

The world is a barrel of rotten apples, the fun part is finding a rotted apple that tastes better then the previous...

[ape descendant]

I go hungry alot, waiting for ripe apples who aren't rotten.

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by ape descendant

I go hungry alot, waiting for ripe apples who aren't rotten.

Definitely, sad to day, THIS. ^^^^^^^^^^

[Heretic]

I say that as part of their sentence, rapists should have to pay restitution to a nationally funded DNA testing program for a period of time equal to their prison term. I've always been an advocate for a system f justice, rather than the system of punishment we have now. Let these @ssholes pay their debt to society in a more literal sense.


- Heretic

[triggerhappi26]

Charging the victims is ridiculous, they would never do it in the first place without that sense of justice.

Do they have any idea what these people go through?

It's true it can take hours but that's not the only thing, filing a police report being asked the same questions over and over police are skeptical, always checking that your details remain the same. All these people want to do is go home. It's not just the crime, but even after the fact is an ordeal, not including just the trauma.

The idea that so many of these kits are left sitting colecting dust instead of putting criminals where they belong is just an outrage.

To put the victims through that much more and for nothing. This disgusts me.

[Saya]

The apathy towards victims is very unsettling but not surprising. Here in the west I think its safe to say that most r@pes that happen are date r@pes, and most rapists do not consider themselves rapists. They use anything as a sign of consent, for example from what she was wearing (remember, skinny jeans are r@pe proof) to the victim consenting to one thing means she's fair game, maybe they'll consent to a blowjob but that doesn't mean they consent to everything else, but police and a jury would take that agreeing to one thing means you agree to everything. And thats not just acts of sex, its happened that people will say "well you shouldn't have kissed him", a while ago there was an advice columnist, if anyone wants to read what she said I can probably find it, but she got a letter from someone who was ***** after going to a room alone at a party with a man, after making it clear she didn't want to have sex, and the columnists blamed her for the r@pe. Despite the fact that most r@pes happen like that, where the rapist betrays the trust of the victim, a lot of people have it in their heads that r@pe means a stranger violently attacking a woman who was never promiscuous in her life. For a lot of other people, especially women, we just can't bear the idea that we're all vulnerable, of course it only happens in those rare violent attacks, anyone foolish enough to go into that room or go on a date with such a seedy character was just stupid. It wouldn't have happened to me.

I mean, it wasn't so long ago in history that police would ask victims if they orgasmed during sex and husbands were allowed to r@pe their wives as much as they pleased, or police would ask abused women what they did to provoke their husbands, shit I bet a lot of policemen are old enough to remember that. This is one of those things were it seems like we've come a long way, and yet in 2010, we haven't come near far enough.

[M.Valdemar]

Truly sickening.

Unbelievable how even 'justice' boils down to $.

[Ben Lahnger]

The dark secret truth in this area is that we haven't come very far at all.

And the problem is all values in these matters come from ancient patriarchal society. And until we get every man to think of every r@pe victim as if she were his sister or his mother, it's not going to change much.

I get that there are sometimes false accusations, and that's a real criticism. I wish those women personally felt what damage it does to other women when they make those false charges. But in general, that happens a very small percentage of the time. And guys need to get that.

Men really need to hold themselves to a much higher standard than they ever have. If she says no, it means no. If she says maybe, it means no. If she says yes to one thing but no to the next, that means no. If she is fairly drunk, you can't be reasonably certain she is in complete control of her faculties and she didn't give you clear indication earlier when she was more sober that her intention was to sleep with you ... it's better to assume her yes is a no.

I really believe that's the standard we ought to hold ourselves to. But I'm not holding my breath. So the least we can do is investigate and prosecute the crime properly when it happens.

[Pineapple_Juice]

I can understand backlogging r@pe kits considering there just isn't enough time or enough people to get every kit done as soon as it's sent it. I can even understand billing someone for the kit being done, because believe it or not the money has to come from somewhere-BUT, just having the kits sitting there with nobody touching them is ridiculous.

[Frenn]

This is slightly off-topic, but one of the few things Im glad for in the USA's Department of Defense, is that any and all types of **** committed by a servicemember are punishable by death.
I dont think the maximum sentence has been handed down in years, but it is definitely in the books.

[retribution]

The justice systems fucked. Nothing new.
Definitely sucks though.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Pineapple_Juice

. I can even understand billing someone for the kit being done, because believe it or not the money has to come from somewhere

So do you think other victims of crime should get a bill from the police every time they need to investigate something? Or rather, isn't this the kind of thing taxes and budgets are spent on?

[Pineapple_Juice]

So, the question is whether or not one should treat a **** like a murder.

[Saya]

Not even a murder. No other victim of crime, at least not violent crime, is charged for any forensic work.

[Pineapple_Juice]

I'm sure you're right. How much does it cost for forensics to work on your average assault case?

[Saya]

Depends on what it is. A bar brawl won't cost much especially if all witnesses cooperate, but a stranger or group attack would cost quite a bit, or even a domestic abuse case since a history of abuse needs to be established. Christ, if your car gets stolen and sent to a chop shop it'll cost more in forensics than a **** kit. Besides that, r@pe has a low report rate. You already risk police not believing you, blaming you, being turned on by the community, the financial burden (and the public knowledge of this backlog) only makes reporting less likely.

[Ben Lahnger]

Pineapple, if your decision on whether the victim of a violent crime should pay for the collecting of evidence is based on how costly it is to collect that evidence ... well, that's pretty unfair and in my opinion pretty fucked up.

"I'm sorry we have to charge you to collect this evidence so we can pursue the criminal that assaulted you, miss. If you'd only had the sense to get bludgeoned by a baseball bat instead of being r@ped, we could foot the bill for you."

[Pineapple_Juice]

You're misunderstanding me. R@pe kits constitute more of a medical situation than of an exploratory, detective-searching-the-scene sort of situation. In a place like Canada where health care is free, I am sure that the situation seems a lot different as opposed to the US where everything we do regarding medical situations must be paid for by somebody. If you don't have insurance, you better have cash. That's the way it works here. It sucks, but with health stuff someone's got to pay for it and until we get nationwide free health insurance, the hospitals still need their money.

[Pineapple_Juice]

As an added thought, does Planned Parenthood do r@pe kits???

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Pineapple_Juice

You're misunderstanding me. R@pe kits constitute more of a medical situation than of an exploratory, detective-searching-the-scene sort of situation. In a place like Canada where health care is free, I am sure that the situation seems a lot different as opposed to the US where everything we do regarding medical situations must be paid for by somebody. If you don't have insurance, you better have cash. That's the way it works here. It sucks, but with health stuff someone's got to pay for it and until we get nationwide free health insurance, the hospitals still need their money.

Its not purely medical, they look for evidence that you were r@pe, and they also collect semen, hair and fluid samples which can be crucial to proving who the r@pist was, this can include vaginal, anal, oral swaps. They look at you from head to toe for signs of r@pe and struggle and also swab under your finger nails. It can take up to two hours to collect all of this evidence. I don't think I'm allowed to share it but our training files for the r@pe crisis center has a detailed account of exactly what they do, its only after the exam that they give you a cocktail of antibiotics (incase you have an STI), the morning after pill and gravol to prevent nausea.

According to the file I'm looking at the exam is performed by a doctor from the Family Practice unit (HSC) with an LPN or resident to assist, so maybe if PP has those two on staff but I doubt it.

[Ben Lahnger]

Pineapple, what does Canada have to do with it? I live in Texas. I'm think that my last statement applies for the U.S. - as in collecting DNA evidence from a R@PE is charged to the victim, but collecting DNA evidence from a baseball battering does not. How is that fair? And your initial point wasn't distinguishing medical procedure from police procedure, it was a comparison of cost - on which point you failed to answer my question.

You can call it a medical procedure, but collecting DNA from a victim, taking photos of the victims body and all the other procedures that are done for a R@PE kit are not dissimilar from other procedures that are done to collect evidence for other crimes (I know, I've watched CSI a few times!)

And I disagree with you on the whole cost thing and am appalled that the way you use your values to asses how to solve the problem of cost is to charge the victim instead of saying that we ought to find the money somewhere else to do the job. I have one alternative ... and I could spend all day finding hundreds of alternatives to your morally-shortsighed and cruel position that the victim should be victimized again ... how about we cancel the F135 Alternate Engine pork-barrel project and reallocate some if not all of the at-least $485 million in savings to R@pe kit processing nationwide.

[Pineapple_Juice]

Relax Ben, I don't know shit about shit. I never said we should victimize the victims and I never said we SHOULD charge people, I'm just saying the money has to come from somewhere and so I understand-note, understand-why people like Palin would make girls pay for their r@pe kits. That's why I talked about Canada, with free insurance it's obvious that nobody would pay to have this stuff done, but in the US things like that aren't black and white to the people who write the checks and there are stipulations that go with anything to do with medical stuff.
The point of my first post was to complain about backlogging when nobody's touching the kits. THAT has no excuse.