Table Of ContentSexual Assault Kits and Reforming
the Response to Rape
Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming the Response to Rape curates the current state
of untested sexual assault kit research and highlights emerging best practices by
exploring the past, the present, and the future of our collective response to rape.
This book is the first to address the most critical topics related to untested sexual
assault kits and the Department of Justice’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, bringing
together leading US scholars, practitioners, policy makers, and survivors. In a series
of well-researched and thoughtful thematic chapters, the book explores the current
state of knowledge related to untested kits, survivors, and perpetrators, while also
documenting fundamental and necessary changes in how societal systems respond to
rape. It provides an opportunity to learn from our past, highlight what we could
do differently now, and envision a better future for victims of rape and those tasked
with ensuring justice. It may also serve as a cautionary tale for those jurisdictions
that have yet to face their backlog or who have failed to embrace the practice and
policy changes that have emerged from the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.
Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming the Response to Rape is essential reading
for practitioners (including law enforcement, prosecutors, victim advocates, mental
health providers, forensic nurses, and forensic scientists), stakeholders, legislators,
and policy makers. It will also be of interest to upper-level students and scholars
working on interpersonal violence, gender-based violence, and forensic nursing in
social/behavioral science fields.
Rachel E. Lovell (PhD, Sociology, The Ohio State University) is an Assistant Professor
of Criminology and Director of the Criminology Research Center at Cleveland State
University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is an applied criminologist and methodologist whose
research focuses on gender-based violence and victimization, particularly sexual assault,
human trafficking, and intimate partner violence. Since 2015, Dr. Lovell has been the
Principal Investigator on several large action research projects on untested sexual assault
kits in collaboration with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and the Akron
Police Department, with funding provided by the Department of Justice’s Sexual Assault
Kit Initiative. As an extension of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, she serves as the lead
researcher on the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office’s Lawfully “Owed” DNA Initi-
ative. Dr. Lovell is also the Principal Investigator on a National Institute of Justice grant
to employ machine learning technology to analyze the narratives of thousands of sexual
assault police reports for “signaling” language regarding a victim’s credibility. She is an
established scholar with over $5.5 million in external funding in the last nine years and
several dozen peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling (PhD, Clinical-Community Psychology, University of
Oregon) is a Professor in the Department of Psychological Science at the University of
North Carolina—Charlotte. She is core faculty in the Clinical Health concentration
of the Health Psychology PhD program and a licensed clinical psychologist in North
Carolina. Dr. Langhinrichsen-Rohling’s research focuses on individual, couple, family,
and system-level factors associated with prevention and response to intimate partner
violence, sexual assault, and self-harming behaviors. Dr. Langhinrichsen-Rohling has
recently been working at the system level to promote trauma-informed care and pre-
vent and repair institutional betrayal. Across her career, Dr. Langhinrichsen-Rohling
directed the Gulf Coast Behavioural Health and Resiliency Center and the Youth Vio-
lence Prevention Program at the University of South Alabama. Currently, she routinely
consults with integrated health-care settings, WIC clinics, domestic violence batterer
intervention programs, service providers, and community advocacy groups to enhance
access to evidence-based services for under-resourced populations. For four years,
Dr. Langhinrichsen-Rohling served as the Primary Investigator on the Mobile Police
Department’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, which successfully tested the backlog of
sexual assault kits (SAKs) in Mobile, changed police policies and practices around
SAK submission, established the Promise Initiative, and started a Family Justice Center.
Dr. Langhinrichsen-Rohling is an established scholar with over 200 peer-reviewed
publications and book chapters. She also has experience as both a journal and book
section editor. Most recently, she served as a section editor of the intimate partner vio-
lence component of the five-volume Handbook of Interpersonal Violence.
Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming
the Response to Rape
Edited by Rachel E. Lovell and Jennifer
Langhinrichsen-Rohling
Cover image: John J. Lawrence
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Rachel E. Lovell and Jennifer
Langhinrichsen-Rohling; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Rachel E. Lovell and Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lovell, Rachel E., editor. | Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Jennifer, editor.
Title: Sexual assault kits and reforming the response to rape / edited by
Rachel Lovell and Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2022. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022023939 (print) | LCCN 2022023940 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032033433 (hbk) | ISBN 9781032033396 (pbk) | ISBN
9781003186816 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Rape. | Rape kits. | Rape victims.
Classification: LCC HV6558 .S492 2022 (print) | LCC HV6558 (ebook) |
DDC 362.88392--dc23/eng/20220628
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022023939
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022023940
ISBN: 978-1-032-03343-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-03339-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-18681-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003186816
Typeset in Sabon
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Dedication
Cleveland—mid-1990s, a 13-year-old female was
walking home from middle school when she saw a car
moving slowly toward her with two males in it. The car
stopped and she crossed to the other side of the street.
She continues walking and the car follows her. The car
stops again. One of the males exited the vehicle and
asked her age. She shrugs and keeps walking. The male
grabs her, forces her into the backseat of a car where
another male is seated, gets back into the car, and starts
driving. The second male in the backseat begins to
fondle her breast and genital area over her clothes. He
then unbuttons her pants, removing her underwear with
them. He slaps her several times, telling her to shut up
as she struggles, kicks, cries, and screams. He then rapes
her vaginally while the first male drives. She is driven
to a white house. The second male carries her into the
house while the first male holds the door open. Once
inside the house, she is left in a room with a mattress on
the floor while the suspects stand watch. While being
held captive, the second male rapes her vaginally again.
She is held captive until 4:30 the next morning, when
the second male wakes her and forces her into the car.
She is forced out of the car at a nearby convenience
store. The suspects drive off. She walks home and when
no one answers, she walks to a friend’s house and calls
the police. Police respond to the call. The victim is
taken to the hospital, where she has a sexual assault kit
(SAK), also known as a rape kit, collected. Police take an
incident report from the victim. The case is forwarded
for investigative follow-up by detectives.
The investigative report, in its entirety, reads: Victim
is a habitual runaway and has run away three times
prior and each time has been located in an apt above
store on [street name] and [street name] (tenant
unknown). Mother filed unruly on the victim. ER
doctor said there was no evidence of trauma to the
vaginal area. Three sentences. That’s it. That’s where
the investigation for this case ended.
This was the first case I (RL) read when I began
working as a research partner for the Cuyahoga
County SAK Task Force, led by the Cuyahoga County
Prosecutor’s Office in late 2014. I knew that the
sexual assault kit associated with this file was only
recently submitted for DNA testing, but how could
this case end like this? Victim is a habitual runaway.
What happened with this case? I searched the case
files for more information. Where was her formal
statement (investigative interview) with detectives?
Had the detectives even talked to her? Did the police
conduct interviews with any potential witnesses?
Did they try to locate the house where she was held
captive and collect evidence? This critical information
and the expected documentation of police effort
just did not exist. In fact, the case file indicated that
the police did little-to-no investigative work on this
case. Reading about the gang and captivity rape of a
13-year-old girl snatched off the street while walking
home from middle school was bad enough, but to
have this terrible event end with the notation that the
“victim is a habitual runaway” was a gut punch.
This case file, along with numerous others we
have read across our many years of working on
the SAK Initiative (JLR, RL), still haunts us. The
lack of criminal justice response for this child and
the thousands of other sexual assault victims with
shelved, under, or non-investigated SAKs, highlights
the insidious impact of rape myths and cultural
biases, the prevalence of the secondary (institutional)
rape too often experienced by vulnerable victims,
our dangerous misunderstanding of sexual assault
predators, their criminal proclivities, and their
tendency to exploit victim vulnerabilities, and the
sometimes callous lack of response by some of those
charged with obtaining justice and preventing other
rapes in an equitable fashion.
Thus, with these shelved SAK victims in mind
and heart, we dedicate this book to survivors and
their recovery journey. We dedicate this book to the
no-longer 13-year-old survivor whose horrific rape
was ignored and the many other survivors whose kits
remained shelved. We remember that each kit is more
than a box of evidence. Each lab report is more than
a piece of paper. These came from your body and
represent your intimate trauma.
The SAKs that you shared with us, directly or
indirectly, are changing our collective response to
rape. These reforms include evidence-based trauma
responses, advocate agency, police culture, lab
policy, prosecutor strategy, prevention efforts, and
state, regional, and national movements, policies,
laws, and mandates. As such and in keeping with
this dedication, the phoenix on the front cover was
designed specifically for this book by John Lawrence.
The phoenix symbolizes rebirth, reform, and triumph
over adversity. Teal (the color for sexual violence
awareness) gives rise to red (the color symbolizing the
fire of courage as well as a passion for truth, healing,
and post-traumatic growth). We can think of no better
way to describe survivors of sexual assault. These
phoenixes are galvanizing change and, along the way,
reforming how organizations, institutions, and the
public respond to sexual assault.
Alongside survivors are many others who are
reforming our response to sexual assault; many
noteworthy change agents contributed to this book
as part of their effort. We thank you and are excited
to give voice to your efforts in this book. We also
acknowledge that our contributions (JLR, RL) over
the years were made possible through collaborations
with colleagues, community stakeholders, graduate
and undergraduate students, and the unwavering
support of our families and friends. In particular,
JLR would like to thank her family—Marty, Ali,
Rosy, Frank, Ryan, and Ruth Langhinrichsen-
Rohling, dear friends—especially Brenda and Kathy,
the Mobile SAKI Promise initiative team members,
Lifelines Counseling Center and the Mobile Police
Department, and key graduate students who have
contributed to this work, including Emma Lathan,
Jessica Duncan, Fallon Richie, and Bridget Jules.
RL would like to thank John, Olivia, and Samantha
Lawrence, numerous supporters and change agents
in the community including Mary Weston, Timothy
McGinty, Michael O’Malley, Melissa Riley, and many
others from the Sexual Assault Kit Task Force, Teresa
Stafford, and many others from the Cleveland Rape
Crisis Center, the Akron SAKI team, and our team of
SAKI researchers including Daniel Flannery, Laura
Overman, Margaret McGuire, Joanna Klingenstein,
Duoduo Huang, Wenxuan Huang, Danielle Sabo, and
several graduate and undergraduate students.
And so many more.
Contents
List of Figures xii
List of Tables xiv
List of Contributors xv
Introduction 1
RACHEL E. LOVELL AND JENNIFER LANGHINRICHSEN-ROHLING
SECTION I
How did we get here? Revisiting the past 7
1 “On the shelves, covered in dust”: The history of untested sexual
assault kits in the United States 9
REBECCA CAMPBELL AND HANNAH FEENEY
2 Where’s my kit? An overview of attrition in sexual assault cases 24
KATHRYN A. MCGILL, KIMBERLY PUSEY, AND SARAH KOON-MAGNIN
3 Understanding sexual assault disclosure: Victim decision-making
processes underlying the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative 43
JENNIFER LANGHINRICHSEN-ROHLING, BRIDGET JULES,
EMMA C. LATHAN, C. AUSTIN COATES, AND RACHEL CRISLER
4 Sexual assault of women of color: Establishing an equitable and
culturally specific response 63
TERESA M. STAFFORD
5 A survivor’s perspective: My sexual assault kit was part of the backlog 76
NATASHA SIMONE ALEXENKO
