Taking on the Challenge of Unsubmitted Sexual Assault Kits

• NCJ Number: 248532
• Date Published: October 2014
• Author(s): Rebecca Campbell; Noël Busch-Armendariz; Bill Wells; Mary Lentschke; Bethany Backes
• Length: 3 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Issue Overview; Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

This web page provides online access to the proceedings of a seminar in which representatives of multidisciplinary teams report on and discuss the findings from their investigations of why there were backlogs of sexual assault kits waiting for analysis in the cities of Detroit and Houston and what can be done to address this problem.

Abstract

PDF access is provided to five seminar presentations. One presentation examines the underlying factors in the backlogs, the importance of partnership and collaboration in addressing this issue, triaging and processing kits, victim notification of case progress, and jurisdiction-specific policy and practice changes that address the issue of backlogs of untested sexual assautl kits. A second presentation profiles the Houston Sexual Assault Kit Action Research Project, which was launched to provide a structure for notification of sexual assault victims regarding progress in evidence analysis for their cases. A third presentation reports on the Detroit Sexual Assault Kit Action Research Project, which addressed the causes and possible solutions for the backlog of untested sexual assault kits in that city. A fourth presentation by the assistant police chief of the Houston Police Department gives a law enforcement perspective on addressing the backlog of unsubmitted sexual assault kits in that city. The fifth presentation provides an overview of action research in Houston and Detroit that addressed the challenge of unsubmitted sexual assault kits in the two cities. The web page also provides access to a video of the seminar proceedings.