After more than a decade of rape kits was found to be backlogged, a good percentage of them have finally been processed.
Of the 13,800 kits Attorney General Mike DeWine said were submitted by hundreds of police departments, roughly 11,000 have been tested so far. The backlog spans back past 1993, when DNA evidence didn’t mean as much as it does now.
News of the backlog was met with public outcry. Rape culture, an idea already permeating mainstream media at the time, was (and still is) being cited as the reason thousands of rape kits were gathering dust on shelves while rapists continued to rape other women. Law enforcement, besides having a bad wrap with people of color, has long been criticized for victim blaming and showing insensitivity toward rape survivors. This oversight has women’s rights activists even more suspicious.
Hearing of this, DeWine started the process of getting the kits processed. Shortly after, a bill was passed that would mandate all of the older kits be submitted for testing by March 23, 2016. Additionally, any new rape kit needs to be sent in within 30 days to prevent such a backlog from happening again.
There is no language in the bill addressing how rape kits from long ago will be handled after testing. Questions are raised as to how ethical it would be to look up a rape survivor from 25 years ago only to tell her/him that the attacker can’t be prosecuted.
Forensic scientists with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) have completed testing on a total of 10,695 kits, resulting in 3,865 hits in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), according to DeWine’s website.
“I am pleased that local law enforcement agencies continue to submit these kits for testing,” DeWine said. “The investigative information that can be gathered from testing these kits could be crucial not only in solving these rapes, but other crimes as well.”
Several serial rapists have been convicted since DNA testing came back on the backlogged kits, and hundreds of defendants have been indicted for rape so far.