The Rape Kit’s Promise: Techno-optimism in the Fight Against the Backlog

Abstract

News of hundreds of thousands of untested forensic rape kits in police storage facilities and forensic labs across the United States has sparked a national dialogue about criminal justice responses to sexual assault. In a battle for more funding for forensic testing, victim advocacy organizations and activists are pointing to the necessity of rape kits for identifying and convicting sexual offenders. When tested, they argue, rape kits can ensure victims’ healing and justice, and increase public safety. Current campaigns to reduce rape kit backlogs reflect a widespread techno-optimism around forensic technologies’ ability to reduce and prevent violent crime. This optimism has a long history. The rape kit’s development in the 1970s was fueled by anti-violence activists’ hope that a new technology would improve criminal justice responses to sexual assault. The rape kit’s history provides an insightful backdrop to current rape kit backlog campaigns and the optimistic sociotechnical imaginary of a society rid of sexual violence through forensic technologies that drives them. An analysis of textual data, including media articles, government reports, conference proceedings, and advocates’ social media campaigns, reveals the history of techno-optimism around the rape kit and its recent expressions in rape kit backlog campaigns. This data also draws attention to the less visible consequences of this techno-optimism: a booming forensic industry profiting from the optimism around the rape kit, an increasing pressure on sexual assault survivors to comply with forensic procedures, and a narrowing of critical dialogues on criminal justice responses to sexual assault and sexual assault prevention.

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