Justice Denied: Low Submission Rates of Sexual Assault Kits and the Predicting Variables

Abstract

Following sexual assaults, victims are advised to seek health care services with forensic evidence collected and packaged in sexual assault kits (SAKs). This large ( N = 1,874), retrospective study examined rates of SAK submissions by law enforcement to the state crime laboratory for analysis from 2010 to 2013 at four sites in a Western state in the United States with established sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) programs. Variables of legal and extralegal characteristics in sexual assault cases were explored through generalized estimating equations (GEE) modeling to determine what factors statistically predicted SAK submissions. For submitted SAKs, the length of time between the dates of assault and dates of submission was categorized, and bivariate and multivariate analyses were calculated to discover legal and extralegal characteristics affecting time of submission. The study sites represented 40% of the state's law enforcement agencies and 65% of the state's population. Out of the 1,874 SAKs in the study, only 38.2% were submitted by law enforcement to the state crime laboratory for analysis. When SAK submissions were examined based on time between assaults and submission dates, 22.8% were submitted within a year of the assault and 15.4% were submitted more than a year after the assault following media and community pressure for law enforcement agencies to submit SAKs in storage. Significant variability of SAK submission rates and the time submitted from the assault dates were found between the sites. Site location was found to be the main determinant of whether or not SAKs were submitted. The lack of SAK submissions for analysis results in justice denied for victims and raises public safety concerns. The finding that the location in which the sexual assault occurred was the primary factor on SAK submissions represents an inequity of justice.

An Examination of Sexual Assault Kit Submission Efficiencies Among a Nationally Representative Sample of Law Enforcement Agencies

“…SAKs (i.e., “rape kits”) are often collected as a component of the forensic examination by a medical professional, ideally by a trained sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE). During the medical exam, SANEs document injuries and collect a narrative of the assault from the survivor to guide the collection of forensic evidence (Corum & Carroll, 2014; Valentine et al, 2019). Forensic examinations are intrusive, as the process lasts at a minimum of several hours and involves invasive procedures such as photographic documentation of injuries; hair samples obtained by plucking/pulling; body sample swabs, including oral, vaginal, or anal swabbing; and fingernail scrapings (R.…”

“…Specifically, a culture of victim-blaming and the discreditation of sexual assault cases may be functional for an overwhelmed system in need of ways to fast-track cases or remove them altogether from the conveyer belt. Although it cannot be assumed that the culture of victim-blaming is ubiquitous across law enforcement agencies, it could perhaps help to explain why the likelihood of some SAKs being submitted for testing is significantly lower in some jurisdictions than others (see Valentine et al, 2019).…”

“…Consistent with the idea that a high volume of requests combined with a paucity of resources simultaneously makes it challenging for agencies to fully investigate every sexual case and encourages the screening out of cases to reduce workload, ample research has indicated that not all SAKs are treated equally in the system. For instance, SAKs from victims who admit to drug use before the assault, report a mental or physical impairment, or bathe after the assault are less likely to be submitted for forensic analysis (Burgess, Hanrahan, & Baker, 2005; Patterson & Campbell, 2012; Valentine et al, 2019), as are those in which law enforcement does perceive the victim to be credible (see B. Campbell, Menaker, & King, 2015; R.…”

Estimating Crime Laboratory Efficiency in the Testing of Sexual Assault Kits,

“…Indeed, studies show that a range of case characteristics, if present, can undermine investigators’ perceptions that the survivor is a “real” victim or that testing the SAK would be beneficial, and in consequence these SAKs are less likely to be submitted for testing (see also Sleath & Bull [27]). These include the victim admitting to being intoxicated before the assault, a lack of obvious physical injuries as a result of the attack, and the victim bathing after the assault (1,2,6,11,22,28–32).…”

“…The struggles of many jurisdictions in tracking, submitting, and testing their sexual assault kits (SAKs) have been widely acknowledged in the past decade (1–11). The accumulation of SAKs in police evidence property rooms (“unsubmitted SAKs,” those never submitted to a crime laboratory for testing) and in crime laboratories (“untested SAKs,” those submitted to a crime laboratory but that have not been tested) can be understood largely as a function of one of two persistent bottlenecks in the criminal justice system (9,12,13).…”