Jane Doe Rape Kits

A rape kit: simple, right?


Starting next year, federal law will require hospitals and clinics to provide rape survivors with the option of collecting a "Jane Doe Rape Kit", meaning you can have kit performed without involving the police at that very moment. Or ever. An anonymous rape kit that marks the kit with a number rather than your name.

Already people are yammering over women using the kit as a way to threaten men they've had sex with. Have you ever had a rape kit performed? It takes over a hour and is as intrusive as it gets. Plus the 8 hour wait at the ER will have women flocking to the ER just to falsely accuse a guy. Please.

At first read, I thought "Why on earth has this not been available earlier? Well it has but certainly not everywhere. Funding they say is an issue. Perhaps we take some money away studying erectile dysfuction or prescribing rapists Viagra and you may have some leftover change? Just a thought.

Imagine this: you've been raped, you want to get help but the attacker could be following you. You could live with the attacker. And so on. So you make it to the hospital and wait in the ER for four, maybe five hours only to wait in a sterile exam room for another hour or so. Your mind wanders - you're numb, you're scared out of your mind - you don't wan't to be there . The last thing you want is for someone to touch your body and not only do they have to take your blood pressure, they have to touch you every place you've just been violated. It's devastating. And then, while you are sitting in nothing but a paper gown, the police come. Not one but probably two or three. Don't count on a woman and if it happens to be a woman, don't expect them to be more sensitive. Some officers are, some aren't. They try - they are just doing their job and their job is to catch the perp. So then you're telling the story, and then you have to tell it again, and eventually after 6 or 7 hours, you'll put your clothes back on, ride in the back of a police car and tell it all over again at the precinct. It is necessary. I wouldn't have done it any other way but I am a survivor of a stranger rape - if it were someone I knew, getting a rape kit performed and pressing charges in a hospital gown - that would be incredibly hard.

If a Jane Doe Rape Kit gets more women the medical attention they need AND allows them to get a rape kit performed without having the police involved, sometimes literally in your exam room? Yes, there will be more rape kits. Just like calling a hotline - you get the care you need, anonymously.

This is an enormous opportunity for both survivors and the police. Considering that only 41 percent of survivors report their cases, I'd say, yeah, making something easier would be helpful.

I'll comment on how the media covered this item later. If I read "too ashamed" one more time I'm going to freak out.