Rape Test Kit
(IN PHOTO) A medical kit used for collecting forensic evidence from child rape victims sits on an examination bed at the Simelela clinic in Cape Town's Khayelitsha township February 17, 2010. South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the world, including child and baby rape, with one person estimated to be raped every 26 seconds, according to aid groups and local organizations. In Khayelitsha, a sprawling, crime-ridden township of some 500,000 people, many of the victims are children under the age of 10. Only a fraction of all actual rape cases are reported and many activists say rape has reached epidemic proportions in the country. Reuters

As the US federal government provide more funds to process Rape Kit TTests stored over the years, thousands of rapists across the US are expected to be jailed. Many of those to be convicted based on DNA tests are expected to be imprisoned, estimated to run into thousands.

For the 2015 budget, US President Barack Obama allocated $41 million to process the test kits and prosecute the sex offenders. For the 2016 fiscal budget, US Vice President Joe Biden set aside another $41 million to cut the backlog, plus $20 million to develop reforms to prevent a repeat of a huge backlog gathering, reports Fox.

Sarah Haacke Byrd, managing director of the Joyful Heart Foundation, an advocacy group that is pushing for the faster processing of the DNA matches of the rape cases, noted that the federal and state governments have been providing since 2014 the “critically needed leadership” and resources to address the huge backlog. The response is spreading across states.

For instance, since 2013, the county prosecutor’s office in Cleveland has indicted over 300 rape suspects based on the results of the DNA tests from old kits. The number of rape suspects expected to be charged is estimated to reach 1,000.

Houston has cleared its backlog of almost 6,700 kits, with some of the cases pending since the 1980s. After Houston spent $6 million, 850 matches were found in the national DNA database. Meanwhile, prosecutors in Wayne County in Detroit sought donations to have 11,000 kits tested by partnering with two non-profit organisations to raise the $10 million needed.

While many other states and counties are scrambling to process the rape kits, in some cases the statutes of limitations have lapsed. In cases where it has not expired, after processing the kits, investigators need to go through police files again, look for witnesses and suspects and convince victims to cooperate and eventually testify even if doing so means opening old wounds.

Doug McGowen, coordinator of the Memphis’ Sexual Assault Kit Task Force, estimates it takes a minimum of 40 hours to follow up a case. If the test kit does not provide a match, all suspects will be investigated. McGowen anticipates the investigation phase and trials would go on until 2019 to remove the city’s 12,300 backlog.

The huge backlog has resulted in many of the suspect repeating their offence on other victims over the years. Investigators in Cuyahoga County, Cleveland, estimate 30 percent of cases developed from testing found the suspects are serial rapists. In Wayne County, 288 potential serial rapists were uncovered by the DNA testing.

The rape test kit usually contain instructions, bags and sheets for evidence collection, swabs, comb, envelopes, blood collection tools and documentation forms. The examiner starts with the collection of the victim’s medical history, followed by head to toe physical examination, including the genital area.

The examiner also could collected blood, urine, hair and other body secretion samples; document the case using photographs; collect the victim’s clothing, especially underwear; and collection of any possible physical evidence that could have been transferred to the victim from the rape scene. The contents of the kit are then stored so it won’t be contaminated, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

To contact the writer, email: vittoriohernandez@yahoo.com

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