Congress Addresses Rape Kit Backlog Crisis

Each year, approximately 200,000 rapes are reported in the United States. The majority of these sexual assault victims undergo a medical examination immediately after the attack so that the police can obtain a rape kit -- a collection of any physical evidence the attacker may have left behind, including vaginal swabs, urine samples, blood tests, and fingernail scrapings. And then, in many cases, these kits sit collecting dust.

While no national statistical database exists for the exact number of untested kits, some estimates put the number at around 180,000. To address this national crisis of untested rape kit backlogs, Representatives Al Franken (D-MN), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) have introduced the Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act of 2009.

As it happens, this is not the first time that Congress has tried to address this crisis.  In 2004, Congress passed the Debbie Smith Act, named after a rape victim whose attacker could have been caught six years sooner had her rape kit been processed in a timely manner. The Debbie Smith Act provides grant money to states for rape kit testing, but it has a major loophole: money from the program can be used for any DNA testing, not just rape kits.

If this new bipartisan bill passes, it would require applicants for Debbie Smith Act funds to specify what portion of the funds will be used to test untested rape kits. It would further mandate that these grant recipients have a plan to reduce their rape kit backlog by 50 percent in two years, and implement financial incentives for jurisdictions to aggressively attack and eliminate their backlogs. To avoid this problem in the future, the bill also provides for a national system for collecting data on rape kits.

And, in one giant leap for common decency, it would eliminate the shocking yet common practice of having the victims of sexual assault pay for their own rape kits.

I can think of few things more insulting to a woman who has just been raped than to ask her to undergo an invasive and potentially traumatizing examination immediately after she's been assaulted, and then let that evidence gather dust.  In a time when it feel as though Congress is setting back women's issues with new legislation regarding abstinence-only education and abortion coverage, here is a law that advances the cause.

Currently, this bill is sitting in committee.  Tell your Congressperson to support the Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act today.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lisa Norwood