1 Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
2 Harder+Company Community Research, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Trauma Violence Abuse. 2017 Oct;18(4):363-376. doi: 10.1177/1524838015622436. Epub 2015 Dec 23.
Victims of sexual assault are often advised to have a medical forensic exam and sexual assault kit (SAK; also termed a "rape kit") to preserve physical evidence (e.g., semen, blood, and/or saliva samples) to aid in the investigation and prosecution of the crime. Law enforcement are tasked with submitting the rape kit to a forensic laboratory for DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) analysis, which can be instrumental in identifying offenders in previously unsolved crimes, confirming identify in known-offender assaults, discovering serial rapists, and exonerating individuals wrongly accused. However, a growing number of media stories, investigative advocacy projects, and social science studies indicate that police are not routinely submitting SAKs for forensic testing, and instead rape kits are placed in evidence storage, sometimes for decades. This review article examines the growing national problem of untested rape kits by summarizing current research on the number of untested SAKs in the United States and exploring the underlying reasons why police do not submit this evidence for DNA testing. Recommendations for future research that can guide policy and practice are discussed.
性侵犯的受害者通常被建议进行医学法医检查和性侵犯工具包（SAK；也称为“强奸工具包”），以保存物理证据（例如精液、血液和/或唾液样本），以协助调查和起诉犯罪。执法部门的任务是将强奸工具包提交给法医实验室进行 DNA（脱氧核糖核酸）分析，这对于在以前未解决的犯罪中识别罪犯、确认已知罪犯的攻击、发现连环强奸犯以及为被错误指控的个人开脱都非常有帮助。然而，越来越多的媒体报道、调查倡导项目和社会科学研究表明，警方并没有例行公事地将 SAK 提交法医检测，而是将强奸工具包放在证据存储库中，有时甚至长达数十年。本文通过总结美国未检测的 SAK 数量的当前研究，探讨了警方不将该证据提交 DNA 检测的潜在原因，审查了未检测的强奸工具包这一日益严重的全国性问题。讨论了可指导政策和实践的未来研究建议。
