Since I assume that most of you have never had to deal with this, I thought I'd point you to
this article , which describes what it's like to be subjected to the rape kit collection process.
I found the story to be very similar to my situation. It begins to capture the humiliation of standing completely naked on butcher paper as someone intensely scrutinizes every inch of your body in a brightly lit room and the embarrasment of having to tell mutliple health and law officials about the exact details of what happened. It gives people an idea of how long the process takes...but of course, the rape kit collection process is just the beginning of a long investigation process.
As a victim, I never was told about the status of the investigation. I assumed, as anyone would, that the rape kit would be processed and that might lead to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator (who was a stranger). Imagine how I must have felt when I learned that the city of San Diego had disposed of over 100,000 rape kits that had never been processed because the backlog was too great and the statute of limitations had run out on the cases. The police certainly never notified victims that this had occured - I had to find out about it through a newspaper investigation. This has happened time and time again throughout the country.
The rape kit collection process made me feel like just another victim. The lackluster investigation made me feel like just another victim. The unprocessed dna evidence that had been collected then thrown away was the final indignity. It's difficult enough for rape victims to come forward in the first place - we don't need to be victimized by the legal system as well.
