ELKTON, Md. (AP) — Rape victims across the country too afraid or ashamed to tell police immediately after the attack will soon have the same option as women in Cecil County.
Starting next year, they can undergo an emergency-room forensic rape exam, and the evidence will be kept sealed in case they decide to press charges.
Cecil County started offering “Jane Doe rape kits” four years ago, after a rape victim recanted. Anne Bean, clinical director for a rape and sexual assault counseling program in the county, said giving women the option of removing police from the crisis until they are ready to press charges is crucial.
The new federal requirement, in which states pay for the kits, removes one of the biggest obstacles to prosecuting rape cases: women so traumatized they don’t come forward until it is too late to collect hair, semen or other samples.
“Sometimes the issue of actually having to make a report to police can be a barrier to victims, and this will allow that barrier to cease, to allow the victim to think about it before deciding whether to talk to police,” said Carey Goryl, executive director of the International Association of Forensic Nurses.
Massachusetts and other health clinics, colleges and hospitals across the country have already started the practice. However, some organizations and jurisdictions will not cover the estimated $800 cost of a forensic exam unless the victim files a police report.
Beginning in 2009, states will have to pay for the kits to continue receiving funding under the federal Violence Against Women Act, which provides tax dollars for women’s shelters and law-enforcement training. States will decide how many locations will offer the exams and how long the evidence should be kept.
Emergency-rooms kits consists of microscope slides, boxes and plastic bags for storing skin, hair, blood, saliva or semen gathered by a specially trained nurse. In addition, the victim’s injuries are photographed.
The Jane Doe kits are sealed with only a number on the outside of the envelope to identify the victim. Police do not open the envelope unless the victim decides to press charges.
The FBI has recommended such an option since at least 1999.
The new requirement applies only to adult victims. Hospitals and doctors must still report incest or abuse involving children to the police.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, 272,350 sexual assaults were reported in 2006. The same survey estimated that only 41 percent of rapes and other sexual assaults are reported to police.
“Many times, you have people who were drunk, maybe doing drugs, maybe they’re underage, and you start talking about the police and they get scared,” Miss Bean said.
Massachusetts officials had no figures on how many kits were collected anonymously, or on how many were opened.
In Allegany and Cecil counties in Maryland, evidence is kept at least 90 days. So far, 13 women have submitted anonymous evidence, and none has returned to press charges.
Still, hospital and police officials say the offer for testing encouraged a reluctant victim in Cecil County to undergo an exam. During the process, she decided to report the crime, and her attacker was successfully prosecuted.
“Just to let people know this option is out there is good, to say, ’It’s OK, you don’t have to prosecute if you don’t want to,’ ” said Kathleen, a rape victim in Pennsylvania who spoke on the condition her full name not be used.
The woman underwent an exam after being raped in Virginia in 2004, but her rapist was never found or charged. She said she wasn’t offered anonymous reporting, but she has met rape victims in group therapy who regret not going for an exam.
“They’re embarrassed,” Kathleen said. “They don’t even go get tested for STDs because they’re so embarrassed.”
At Union Hospital in Elkton, forensic nurse Chris Lenz said Jane Doe testing is not offered unless a medical professional fears the victim will leave without the option.
“Of course we encourage reporting,” she said. “That’s what we would like. But when they’re adamant they don’t want to report [and] if we think she’s going to walk out if she has to go through with this, that’s when we offer it.”
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