Public Knowledge and Perceptions About Unsubmitted and Untested Sexual Assault Kits

• Author: Gillian M. Pinchevsky,William H. Sousa
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/07340168211043069
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Public Knowledge and

Perceptions About

Unsubmitted and Untested

Sexual Assault Kits

Gillian M. Pinchevsky

1

and William H. Sousa

1

Abstract

Large numbers of unsubmitted and untested sexual assault kits have been uncovered across the

country. Although increased criminal justice, empirical, and legislative attention have been given

to better understanding this issue, the extent to which the public is aware of unsubmitted and

untested kits and how the public feels about the subject has not been explored. Assessing the pub-

lic’s knowledge of this topic is important considering that public awareness of criminal justice issues

can ultimately inf‌luence policy decisions. This study, therefore, explores the publics’knowledge and

perceptions about the issue of unsubmitted and untested sexual assault kits. We found that roughly

74% of the sample had heard of the term “sexual assault kit,”and a little over half (60%) of those

persons were aware of the magnitude of the issue surrounding unsubmitted and untested kits. Few

(30%) respondents who were aware of the problem knew that it was an issue in their own com-

munities. Further, the public was generally supportive of testing kits and saw the utility of kits,

but nuances in the data emerged.

Keywords

untested sexual assault kits, unsubmitted sexual assault kits, community perceptions

The existence of unsubmitted (i.e., not yet submitted to a crime lab) and untested (i.e., submitted to a

lab but not yet tested) sexual assault kits (SAKs) across the country continues to gain national media

and research attention. The most recent research on the estimated number of unsubmitted kits sug-

gests that between 300,000 and 400,000 kits had not been submitted for testing in the United States as

of the mid-to-late 2010s (Strom et al., 2021). Certainly, as pointed out by Strom et al. (2021), “the

number of unsubmitted SAKs in the United States is not a static f‌igure”(p. 7), and since there is no

nationwide requirement placed on jurisdictions to collect this information, these estimates may

change with additional census count efforts in jurisdictions and more research. Still, the sheer

University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Corresponding Author:

Gillian M. Pinchevsky, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Box 455009, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA.

Email: gillian.pinchevsky@unlv.edu

Article

Criminal Justice Review

2022, Vol. 47(4) 464-483

© 2021 Georgia State University

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/07340168211043069

journals.sagepub.com/home/cjr

number of unsubmitted and untested kits is jarring when considering that a person and a trauma lives

behind each of those kits.

The number of unsubmitted and untested SAKs across the country has prompted signif‌icant

reforms to how jurisdictions and state entities respond to these issues. For example, since 2015,

the Bureau of Justice Assistance has awarded millions of dollars to individual jurisdictions and

entire states through its sexual assault kit initiative (SAKI) to collect a census of the number of

SAKs that exist, reduce the number of unsubmitted and untested SAKs, improve sexual assault

investigations and prosecutions, and develop an infrastructure to prevent any future accumulation

of unsubmitted and untested kits. Further, national and local media outlets have published numer-

ous news stories on the issue of unsubmitted and untested kits and organizations such as the Joyful

Heart Foundation (and their initiative, EndtheBacklog.com), and the Human Rights Watch have

brought current news to the general public. Given the impact of the media on the public’s under-

standing of social issues—including issues related to sexual violence (e.g., Katz-Schiavone et al.,

2008; Proctor et al., 2002) —it is important to better understand the messages received by the

public.

Currently, it is unclear how the general public views the issue of unsubmitted and untested SAKs

and how the increased coverage impacts public perceptions surrounding the criminal justice system’s

response to victims of sexual assault. However, it is appropriate to wonder whether the uncovering of

so many kits could spark discussion about system-wide reform. Public perceptions have the potential

to impact policies and practices in the criminal justice system, and public perceptions about the

system and system responses could potentially have signif‌icant implications for the likelihood of

wanting to participate in and/or supporting the criminal justice system (see, generally, Marion &

Oliver, 2012).

As a result, we aimed to assess community knowledge and perceptions about unsubmitted

and untested SAKs. This exploratory study relied on a sample of 768 United States citizens (ages

18 +with internet access) surveyed through Qualtrics in late 2017. We oversampled participants

residing in one state that received state-wide SAKI funding (Nevada) and then conducted a

random sample of U.S. residents across the country.

Sexual Assault Kits

Jurisdictions across the country have uncovered large numbers of previously unsubmitted and

untested SAKs. Recent estimates suggest that between 300,000 and 400,000 kits were not submitted

as of the mid-to-late 2010s (Strom et al., 2021). These estimates may change as jurisdictions conduct

additional counts and research continues in this area.

The discovery of so many previously unsubmitted kits is problematic for a number of reasons.

First, it ref‌lects both “justice delayed”and “justice denied”(Strom & Hickman, 2010) to victims

of sexual assault, who often undergo medical exams with forensic evidence collection with the

hopes and expectations that the evidence will help hold a perpetrator accountable (Du Mont et al.,

2009). Further, the potential value of testing SAKs is plentiful. The testing of kits—regardless of

victim-offender relationship and statute of limitations—can result in CODIS hits (Campbell et al.,

2016; Campbell et al., 2018; Campbell et al., 2019b) and help identify previously unknown suspects,

conf‌irm identities of identif‌ied suspects, and exonerate those who have been wrongfully convicted

(Campbell et al., 2017a). Recently, researchers have explored how the testing of previously unsub-

mitted kits can help identify serial sex offenders (Campbell et al., 2019a; Campbell et al., 2020;

Lovell et al., 2019; Lovell et al., 2020).

Given the potential benef‌its of testing kits for investigative leads, researchers have attempted to

understand why kits went unsubmitted—and therefore, untested—for so long. Available jurisdic-

tional resources for submission and testing is a necessary consideration (Campbell et al., 2017a;

Pinchevsky and Sousa 465