At Home Rape Kits...would You?

Scarletbegonia

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Two companies were set to launch rape kits for home use.
Both are pulled from the market.
The At-Home Rape Kit Start-up Is a Useless Mess

Concerns focus on what good they could do.
Chain of custody makes or breaks DNA evidence, legally.

I see this as useful when padawans make claims. I’d have loved proof to secure my safety from my abuser.
I can also see fundie parents of any stripe testing their daughters.

What’s your take?
 

ArtAppreciation

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This company is shamelessly trying to take financial advantage of the ‘Me Too’ movement

By itself, doesn’t seem reason enough to ban them.

by luring victims into thinking that an at-home-do-it-yourself sexual assault kit will stand up in court … Career prosecutors know that evidence collected in this way would not provide the necessary chain of custody.”

I would like to learn more about this. The interpretation and these new products and changing laws-this is disruptive technology.

concern that the MeToo kits would “deter individuals from seeking professional care.”

Pffft...I feel pretty sure that someone who’s vigilant enough to buy a kit like this .....

......is going to do everything to make sure that the fucker is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law
 
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Scarletbegonia

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Pffft...I feel pretty sure that someone who’s vigilant enough to buy a kit like this .....

......is going to do everything to make sure that the fucker is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law
That has to start with a hospital kit. Chain of custody is EVERYTHING in DNA. Contamination nullifies samples and results.
 

LaFemme

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Totally useless. I used to assist with helping the police with doing rape kits. Well, I’d be the person advocating for and comforting the victim, while the kit was being done. Chain of custody is everything. Every piece of evidence is witnessed and initialed and dated as it’s taken. It’s a labourious process. It takes training to know how to do it properly. The police officer then has to sign it in and have it processed. You can’t do that at home. A defence lawyer would have a freakin’ picnic would that at court.
 
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I wouldn't buy one. Even when victims are properly rape tested in the correct way convictions are scarce.

Anyway, how do they compare in price to sulphuric acid?
 

MickeyLee

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I keep thinking back to the documentary I Am Evidence.

If official rape kits are left to rot, or are destroyed *without ever having been tested* after statute of limitations expire, what is the point of a home rape kit?

I can see some value, maybe, in having some proof of an assault even if the victim can't/doesn't want to report. But it's only an illusion of control or defense as the kits are useless in a court of law.

It sounds like a cash grab on disenfranchised victims. Ones who for so many reasons might not see going to the police as an option.

It's a fucking gut blow to even think of a world where home rape kits can be a thing.

*Ponders* I could see the kits being useful in a self-policing/assault watch list. Combined with genetic testing, the kits could help build a database of assailants for people in the sex trade. While not legally binding the use of post assault kits administered by a support group and self reported could help folk outside of "straight" world protection.

The whole idea is fucking ugghhh :pensive:
 
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950483

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I keep thinking back to the documentary I Am Evidence.

If official rape kits are left to rot, or are destroyed *without ever having been tested* after statute of limitations expire, what is the point of a home rape kit?

I can see some value, maybe, in having some proof of an assault even if the victim can't/doesn't want to report. But it's only an illusion of control or defense as the kits are useless in a court of law.

It sounds like a cash grab on disenfranchised victims. Ones who for so many reasons might not see going to the police as an option.

It's a fucking gut blow to even think of a world where home rape kits can be a thing.

*Ponders* I could see the kits being useful in a self-policing/assault watch list. Combined with genetic testing, the kits could help build a database of assailants for people in the sex trade. While not legally binding the use of post assault kits administered by a support group and self reported could help folk outside of "straight" world protection.

The whole idea is fucking ugghhh :pensive:
That database would be a good idea. I think you know really that there would be tightly enforced laws against that kind of thing. It just wouldn't be allowed to happen.
 
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AlteredEgo

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I wouldn't personally have a reason to ever buy one. I have no intention of attempting to prosecute an assailant. He's either dead on the spot, in which case I need the police to administer the kit to aid me in my own legal defense, or or he's getting away with it and I'm moving on the best I can.