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Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

freep.com

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Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#11

Post by dsfyu404ed »

quirkot wrote: post #3

My god, how do you leave over 11k crimes just sitting in a store room... in one county. I'm glad they're addressing this gross miscarriage of justice. Hope it's an isolated thing (but not actually expecting it to be so)

An organization that forgets about 11,000 pieces of evidence that could become easy statistics boosters probably has equally sloppy procedures for handling and processing that evidence.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/epic-drug-lab-scandal-r...

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#12

Post by dsfyu404ed »

jrs95 wrote: post #7

Were the ones they've identified repeat offenders or something? I was under the impression that a relatively small % of the population had their DNA in a database.

If you are suspected of a crime in which DNA is relevant and set foot in a police station it's not unheard of for them to ask you if you'd like a water in case you drink from it and leave the bottle in the trash.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#13

Post by astura »

jrs95 wrote: post #7

Were the ones they've identified repeat offenders or something? I was under the impression that a relatively small % of the population had their DNA in a database.

Yes, "serial" means "repeat" in this context.

Specifically, TFA said that they defined "serial rapist" as those who raped 10-15 times without being caught.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#14

Post by nether »

> 86% of our victims in these untested kits are people of color. You're not going to find too many blond-haired, blue eyed white women ... Because their kits are treated differently, their cases are solved. That's just the way it is in this country. If you're a person of color, if you're a different economic class, then your case across the board, across the board, not just sexual assault — they're treated differently. And that's just the truth. People may not want to admit it, but I've seen it throughout my career and I know it's true

Wow.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#15

Post by loeg »

kelukelugames wrote: post #2

>Over 800 serial rapists, criminals who have struck 10-15 times without being stopped, were identified. 127 convictions have been made this far. The definition of serial rapist is 10+ victims. That's a lot of them in one county. o_O

This is the county that contains Detroit, once the largest city in the US. And still quite large, despite the attrition.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#16

Post by dragonwriter »

jrs95 wrote: post #7

Were the ones they've identified repeat offenders or something? I was under the impression that a relatively small % of the population had their DNA in a database.

You don't have to be in a database before for your DNA in one rape kit to be identified as being (nearly certainly) from the same person as your DNA in 9+ other rape kits.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#18

Post by loeg »

ben_w wrote: post #8
kelukelugames wrote: post #2

>Over 800 serial rapists, criminals who have struck 10-15 times without being stopped, were identified. 127 convictions have been made this far. The definition of serial rapist is 10+ victims. That's a lot of them in one county. o_O

Population: 1,749,366. Kits: 11,341. Judging by how many women I know who have been willing to say they have been raped — and no, I don’t mean just pressured into something they regretted — this is probably less than one tenth of the victims.

These are the kits that went untested and were forgotten in a warehouse over the course of years. Some percentage of kits were tested and not forgotten in this warehouse.

The numbers here don't tell us how many kits are taken annually, what percentage of women report and get a kit done at the hospital, or how many years' worth of kits this was.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#20

Post by loeg »

dragonwriter wrote: post #16
jrs95 wrote: post #7

Were the ones they've identified repeat offenders or something? I was under the impression that a relatively small % of the population had their DNA in a database.

You don't have to be in a database before for your DNA in one rape kit to be identified as being (nearly certainly) from the same person as your DNA in 9+ other rape kits.

The article does say they have gone on to arrest 127 people, so presumably they were also able to identify the perpetrator from the DNA (or the testimony of the victim).
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