The Political Forces at Work in the Creation & Use of Rape Kits

[jesse_the_k]

No detailed descriptions of rape, but many survivors describe their cruel dismissal by the police and courts.

I deeply appreciated this meditation on gendered design and technology (as well as journalist effort) in telling the story of Marty Goddard and other feminist activists who designed and promoted prosecution of sexual assaults with the systematic evidence collected via the "rape kit." The writer also details the shameful willingness of many police departments to stuff rape kits, untested, in warehouses for decades.

There Are Many Man-Made Objects. The Rape Kit Is Not One of Them by Pagan Kennedy

It’s on the NYTimes site, so may be behind a paywall. Hence extensive quotes:

It seemed to me that the rape-kit system was an invention like no other. Can you think of any other technology designed to hold men accountable for brutalizing women?

​ [… snip …]

[S]exual-assault forensics began as a system for men to decide what they felt about the victim — whether she deserved to be considered a “victim” at all. It had little to do with identifying a perpetrator or establishing what had actually happened.

Ms. Goddard’s insight was that the only fix for this dysfunctional system would be incontrovertible scientific proof, the same kind used in a robbery or attempted murder. The victim’s story should be supported with evidence from the crime lab to build a case that would convince juries. To get that evidence, she needed a device that would encourage the hospital staff members, the detectives and the lab technicians to collaborate with the victim. On the most basic level, Ms. Goddard realized, she had to find a mechanism that would protect the evidence from a system that was designed to destroy it.

​ [… snip …]

Invention, architecture, design — these are not just technical feats. They are political acts. The inventor offers us a magical new ability that can be wonderful or terrifying: to halt disease, to map the ocean floor, to replace a human worker with a machine, or to kill enemies more efficiently. And those magical abilities create winners and losers. The Harvard professor Sheila Jasanoff has observed that technology “rules us much as laws do.”

[… snip …] ​ When it comes to sexual assault, there are many inventions I can think of that help men get away with it — from the date-rape drug to “stalkerware” software. More striking is how few inventions, how little technology and design, has been devoted to keeping women safe.

[… snip …]

But this is not how it has to be. It’s entirely possible to create public spaces and tools for everyone. Our environment and technology can foster a sense of equality and pluralism.

​ [… snip …]

In other words, the rape kit, with its official blue-and-white packaging and its stamps and seals, functioned as a theatrical prop as well as a scientific tool. The woman in the witness box, weeping as she recounted how her husband tried to kill her, could sound to a judge and jury like a greedy little opportunist. But then a crime-lab technician would take the stand and show them the ripped dress, the semen stains, the blood. When a scientist in a lab coat affirmed the story, it seemed true.

​ [… snip …]

Ms. Goddard had invented not just the kit, but a new way of thinking about prosecuting rape. Now, when a victim testified, she no longer did so alone. Doctors, nurses and forensic scientists backed up her version of the events — and the kit itself became a character in the trials. It, too, became a witness.

​ [… snip …]

That’s another reason Ms. Goddard may have been willing to trademark her idea under Sergeant Vitullo’s name. It was as if in order to invent, she also had to disappear. The rape kit simply never would have had traction if a woman with no scientific credentials had been known as its sole inventor. It had to come from a man.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/17/opinion/rape-kit-history.html

Comments

[tarasacon]

I read your snippets, have not yet attempted to navigate the paywall to read the full article. Apologies if that leads to redundancy in my comments.

Kentucky is one of the states that had a problem with untested kits. The good news is they acknowledged it, caught up on the backlog, and committed to staying caught up going forward. Bad news is a complete failure to stay current.

source: https://wfpl.org/after-backlog-cleared-wait-for-rape-kit-testing-averages-seven-months/

Additional bad news is that investigative reporting then uncovered that Louisville police haven’t been and aren’t currently arresting and charging known offenders because the DA didn’t want to deal with the cases. Fifty one percent of cases are closed before ever being properly investigated.

source: https://wfpl.org/kycir-louisville-rape-clearance-rates/
source: https://wfpl.org/lmpd-to-testify-about-rape-investigations-in-wake-of-kycir-report/

[jesse_the_k]

The article details the fundamental position of patriarchy re: rape (huh? why do I care?) which no amount of rape kits has fixed, as yet, so cruelly illustrated by your State's experience.

I appreciated the message of this Vox interview with Patrick Skinner, a former CIA officer who came out of the cold and became a cop: for the past 40 years USA policy has created cops modeled on occupying armies. The current situation is predictable.

(That's enough politics for me now.)

[bibliofile]

That's fascinating. And thank ghu for that much progress, oy.