This fact sheet from the National Insitute of Justice outlines what research has told us about sexual assault kits:
1. No one knows the number of kits nationwide that have not been submitted for testing.
2. Little is known about the age of unsubmitted kits.
3. Submitting a kit to a crime lab does not mean the lab will obtain usable DNA.
4. Even if the police have a suspect, testing a kit can be useful for a number of reasons.
5. The cost to test a sexual assault kit varies widely.
Publish Date
April 2015