More than 2,400 rape kits that involve possible juvenile sexual assault victims never made it to state crime labs in Wisconsin for testing, according to a new report Tuesday.
The records, released late last month by state Justice Department officials to the USA Today Network-Wisconsin, revealed that at least 2,441 collections of untested evidence — roughly one-third of the 6,000 untested rape kids that state officials said three years ago were sitting dormant in police departments and medical facilities — were from child sexual assault investigations.
Of those kits involving possible juvenile victims, roughly 62 percent are scheduled for testing at private labs this year or in 2018. A majority of the child kits not scheduled to be tested involve cases where a defendant has been already convicted, while the remaining samples aren’t lined up for analysis due to other issues like lack of cooperation from the victim, according to an analysis of the records.
Young adults ages 18 to 29 represent the next largest population segment among the untested rape kits, with more than 2,100 evidence samples that went unanalyzed. Another 3,300 untested rape kits involved adults, and nearly 70 percent of those are slated to be tested by next year.
The state records also revealed that many kits weren’t sent for testing because police didn’t pursue investigations or due to a lack of charges sought by prosecutors, likely explaining nearly 42 percent of the state’s rape kit backlog, including more than 1,000 kits of possible juvenile victims.
The state records also found that more than one-quarter of the kits went untested because investigators deemed allegations to be unfounded or they felt that the results would not impact the case.
The agencies that declined to pursue those probes were not identified because Department of Justice officials redacted any identifying information from government records sought by the USA Today network.
The records also revealed that the possible victims play a role in the backlog as well. In roughly 15 percent of cases, allegations of a crime were not reported to police, meaning the corresponding evidence did not make it to state laboratories. In 12 percent of cases, the crime was reported but the individual was either deemed to be uncooperative or decided to withdraw charges.
