Shelving Justice: The Discovery of Thousands of Untested Rape Kits in Detroit

• NCJ Number: 249290
• Journal: City and Community Volume: 14 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2015 Pages: 151-166
• Author(s): Rebecca Campbell; Jessica Shaw; Giannina Fehler-Cabral
• Date Published: June 2015
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2011-DN-BX-0001
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: The Detroit Sexual Assault Kit (SAK) Action Research Project

Annotation

This study drew upon qualitative interviews with Detroit stakeholders, archival records, and ethnographic observations to examine the events surrounding the discovery of 11,000 rape kits in a Detroit Police Department storage facility in August 2009, the majority of which had never been tested for DNA evidence, and why police personnel did not view the accumulation of so many untested sexual assault kits (SAKs) as a problem.

Abstract

To address this problem, a multidisciplinary action research project was formed to bring together researchers and practitioners from law enforcement, prosecution, forensic sciences, medicine/nursing, and victim advocacy to develop evidence-based response strategies. Over the course of this three-year action research project, Detroit stakeholders worked together to enact local- and State-level reforms to test these kits and to prevent this problem from happening again. (Publisher abstract modified)