Pillar: Test Backlogged Kits

Across the country, there are rape kits sitting in police storage facilities that have never been tested. These kits represent survivors who are waiting for justice—sometimes for decades—and dangerous, often serial offenders free on the streets to commit more crimes. Many communities’ rape kit testing efforts are taking violent offenders off the streets—many of whom have escaped justice for decades—and improving public safety. Not only does testing backlogged rape kits make communities safer, it can also save millions of dollars.

The rape kit backlog represents a failure of the criminal justice system to protect survivors and hold perpetrators accountable. We can and must do better. When jurisdictions test every kit, they solve crimes, bring answers and a path to justice for survivors, take criminals off the streets, and exonerate the wrongly convicted.

All kits connected to a reported crime should be tested regardless of how long it has been since the sexual assault or if the statute of limitations has passed. Testing could help law enforcement connect crimes together and identify serial perpetrators. In addition, a survivor may be able to file a civil lawsuit against the offender, provide an impact statement at sentencing should their offender be convicted of another crime, and speak at parole hearings if the offender is incarcerated.

Anonymous or unreported kits, in which a survivor has chosen to collect DNA evidence in a rape kit but not report the assault to law enforcement, should not be tested until the survivor has consented to testing.

While this pillar can be best accomplished through legislative action, it can also be satisfied through executive direction, crime lab policy, or as part of a federal grant requirement.

Below we break down which states are in the process of testing their backlogged kits, and which states have eliminated their backlog.

States that have committed to testing their backlogged kits:

States that have eliminated their backlog:

Joyful Heart works with state legislators to enact comprehensive rape kit legislation based on six pillars of reform. We have created model legislation, offering a survivor-centered, trauma-informed approach to rape kit reform at the state level. Click here to learn more.