Identifying Serial Sexual Offenders Through Cold Cases

摘要

Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of untested sexual assault kits (SAKs)—also known as rape kits—have languished for decades in evidence storage facilities.1?SAKs are sets of items (e.g., fingernail scrapings, vaginal swabs) collected by medical professionals to preserve evidence from a victim of sexual assault. Investigators then can use this evidence for investigation and prosecution. Many of these kits contain a definitive (and in some cases, the only) piece of evidence linking an offender to a victim—DNA.