A date rape case even doubters will believe?

Great Debates
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I just finished reading this story from the Atlantic. It’s from this week’s issue and it’s called *An Epidemic of Disbelief *. It’s about how our legal system handles rape cases.

( I’m not sure if this link through Apple news will work for everyone. But I don’t want to open it directly to make a link, it might count against a free story limit. )

The article speaks extensively about the thousands of rape cases closed after perfunctory investigations. In large part that came back to broader societal attitudes, detectives and prosecutors didn’t want to “waste” time on cases they didn’t think were winnable. There are thousands of rape kits in evidence lockers across the country that have never been DNA tested. There is now a movement underway to test those kits. This mass testing of thousands of rape kits has lead to some interesting revelations.

Many of those kits were never tested because they were reported as date / acquaintance rapes.The districts didn’t feel the need to pay for a DNA test, they knew who the perp was. They found that men who raped their dates or acquaintances were frequently also responsible for one or more stranger rapes. Running those kits resulted in cases of stranger rape being cleared. And it proved that a date rapist is a rapist.

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That was a very interesting article. The fact you cite surprised me (especially given the numbers stranger rapes versus non-stranger rapes).

I also thought it was interesting that the use of DNA discovered more serial rapists than thought because the police were focused on profiling serial offenders and many of the instances seemed unconnected. But that, for whatever reason, many serial rapists don’t act in a pattern.