Shelving Justice: The Discovery of Thousands of Untested Rape Kits in Detroit

Abstract

In August 2009, approximately 11,000 sexual assault kits (SAKs; “rape kits”) were found in a Detroit police department storage facility, the vast majority of which had never been tested for DNA evidence. To address this problem, a multidisciplinary action research project was formed to bring together researchers and practitioners from law enforcement, prosecution, forensic sciences, medicine/nursing, and victim advocacy to develop evidence–based response strategies. In this paper, we will draw upon qualitative interviews with Detroit stakeholders, archival records, and ethnographic observations to examine the events surrounding the discovery of the rape kits and why police personnel did not view the accumulation of so many untested SAKs as a problem. Over the course of this three–year action research project, Detroit stakeholders worked together to enact local– and state–level reforms to test these kits and to prevent this problem from happening again.