By Amala Dasarathi
We just learned something rather cool: singer Erykah Badu is donating a portion of proceeds from her upcoming concert on 12th August in Detroit to the processing of unopened rape kits in the city. In 2009, around 11,000 unprocessed rape kits were found abandoned in a Detroit police warehouse, each of which costs around $490 to process. Around 10,000 kits have been tested already, and the money Badu aims to raise will go towards the testing of the remaining ones.
So what’s a rape kit? When a sexual assault is reported in the US and an investigation is conducted, a forensic exam helps preserve possible DNA evidence. DNA is collected from the crime scene, as well as from the victim’s body, clothing, and other belongings. The rape kit is an actual kit that contains all the material required for this exam, such as a checklist, bags and sheets for evidence collection, comb, forms, and swabs. Processing these kits can help nab the perpetrators of these crimes, but as it is expensive and requires resources (as well as the political will) to do so, several thousands of these lie unopened in storage.
Processing these kits can help in arresting the accused and securing convictions, so that the victim doesn’t have to live through years of trauma just fighting her case. After an investigation by journalist Rachel Dissell, who was one of two reporters who in 2010 wrote about neglected rape kits at the Cleveland Police Department, around 4,000 unopened kits were processed after 2011. On processing them, police found that about a third of rapes were perpetrated by a serial offender.
“The implications are tremendous,” writes Chava Gourarie in the Columbia Journalism Review. “It means that every unsolved case is even more likely to be another rape waiting to happen, and that removing even a single rapist from the street eliminates an ongoing threat.”
Five dollars of each concert ticket sold for Badu’s concert will go to the African-American 490 Challenge, an organisation that raises money for the scientific testing of these evidence kits, as well as the investigation and prosecution of the forgotten crimes behind these rape kits. Badu will also donate the proceeds from a $100 pre-show reception and $1,000 VIP reception.
Badu isn’t the only celebrity to lend herself to this cause. Actor Mariska Hargitay, who plays detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and is the founder and president of the Joyful Heart Foundation, has been deeply committed to the cause of getting the unopened rape kits in Detroit (and elsewhere) tested. Last year, the US government awarded around $80 million towards the opening of rape kits.