Sexual Assault Kit Testing Initiatives and Non-investigative Kits

Excerpt:  “This document presents reasons why the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) cautions against submitting sexual assault kits (SAKs) to forensic laboratories if the person from whom the kit was collected has not chosen to report a sexual assault to law enforcement and has not otherwise consented to its submission. While terms used to describe these kits vary across jurisdictions, they are referred to as non-investigative kits in this document. We summarize how testing non-investigative kits without victim consent can undermine victims’ rights, weaken community trust of law enforcement, and constitute an imprudent use of finite resources.” (footnotes omitted)