Background

Joyful Heart defines the backlog as untested kits that are:

• collected and booked into evidence, but detectives and/or prosecutors do not request DNA analysis and the kits are put into storage. These kits may remain in a police evidence storage facility, hospital, or rape crisis center indefinitely. This is often referred to as the “unsubmitted” rape kit backlog; and
• collected and sent to the crime lab for testing but languish in a queue, awaiting DNA analysis for months, years and sometimes indefinitely. The Joyful Heart Foundation defines a “backlogged” kit at the DNA testing lab as one that has not been tested within 30 days of receipt by the lab

While the number of untested rape kits has decreased over the last decade – the backlog was once deemed to be 400,000 – today, we estimate that there are still 100,000 untested rape kits yet to be discovered.

…we estimate that there are still 100,000 untested rape kits on shelves yet to be discovered

Every 68 seconds, someone is sexually assaulted in the United States. In the immediate aftermath of a sexual assault, a survivor may choose to undergo a medical forensic examination to collect evidence that may have been left behind by the attacker. A medical professional will conduct an examination of the survivor’s body–which has become a crime scene. The survivor’s body is photographed, swabbed, and examined in an exhaustive procedure that can take four to six hours or longer. This process is invasive and uncomfortable even with a trained examiner, but victims go through it because they want to help find the attacker.

DNA technology is a powerful tool to help law enforcement professionals solve and prevent crime. When tested, rape kit evidence can identify an unknown assailant, reveal serial offenders, and exonerate the wrongfully convicted. Testing rape kits can yield evidence in the form of a DNA profile, which can be entered into local, state, and national databases containing DNA from offenders. When every kit connected to a reported crime is tested, more DNA profiles are developed and uploaded to these databases. This means more DNA from crime scenes can be linked, creating investigative leads and identifying predators—often serial offenders. When kits go untested, on the other hand, dangerous offenders are left on the streets to victimize again and again. Sadly, there are too many examples from communities across the country where the evidence to stop a crime from happening–in some cases homicide–was sitting on a shelf in a box collecting dust.

This is what drives us to end the rape kit backlog. Joyful Heart has had tremendous success in our work to get rape kits into labs, speed up the process, and give survivors rights. It has been said that Joyful Heart has created a “mountain of concern” about this tragedy by using our unique platform to shed light on the issue and create an effective response. We have stayed focused on this issue and in 2010 made it our top advocacy priority.

Since we launched our policy campaign in 2016, we’ve helped push for the passage of 130 bills in 46 states affecting more than 321 million people and more than 136,000 survivors of reported rapes every year.

Since the first law related to untested kits was adopted in 2002, reform has progressed at a steady pace, peaking in 2019. As expected, legislative action took a dip during the pandemic years, but 2021 brought us back to pre-pandemic levels. In the coming years, there is reason to believe that change makers at state and local levels will remain committed to mandating testing and tracking of rape kits and ensuring victims’ rights.

Since we launched our policy campaign in 2016, 129 bills in 46 states affecting more than 321 million people and more than 136,000 survivors of reported rapes every year.