A recent audit of the police department in Fayetteville, NC found that 333 untested rape kits had been destroyed prior to 2009, when the practice became illegal. Of these kits, half were evidence in unsolved cases. The current chief expresses frustration at the injustices towards victims by order of his predecessors.
While I am glad to know that there is now a law against such destruction, it saddens me to know that there are victims out there with a lesser chance of ever having their cases solved because the department claimed to not have enough room to hold all the evidence. This case brings a few questions to mind…
Does the destruction of the evidence serve to re-victimize the assaulted? Should reparations be made, and if so, how? What role does gender inequality play in this (i.e. assuming that victims were mostly female and decision makers were mostly male?)
http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/more-than-rape-kits-destroyed-fayetteville-police-say/article_33a1b041-9142-5cb5-8d85-2a18b5ad7891.html