The History of the ‘Rape Kit’

Recommendable!

Unfortunately, it is often still very difficult to prove a sexual assault leading to indictment and sentencing.

Unfortunately, some women make false claims of sexual assault or inappropriate behavior to taint the reputation of a man or for political reasons. E.g. Donald Trump. Possibly, Pete Hegseth to name two recent prominent cases.

"In the 1970s, the prevalence of sexual abuse was rarely discussed, victims were nearly always considered to be at fault, and few rapists were arrested—with a lack of evidence often cited as the excuse.

Martha Goddard, a philanthropic organization executive who worked with young rape victims, was determined to change that. Her work led to the sexual assault evidence collection kit, known as a “rape kit,” that is now an important forensic tool in many sexual assault cases. 

In her book detailing the kits’ history, Pagan Kennedy also addresses the limitations of the kits—which are challenging for traumatized survivors, and have a backlog of 100,000 for processing the kits—and ultimately, how “broken the system for reporting sexual assault remains.”"

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