The point is that being raped shouldn’t have made her more likely to be caught.
I think this is a fair stance to take, as DNA from rape kits being used for future tracking of the raped is going to disincentivise the use of rape kits.
I want to live in a world with less sexual violence, and if rape victims can submit DNA evidence without having to worry about state tracking (and those kits actually be analysed) then I think we can get a step closer to that world.
Let me explain why that difference matters. Now, on top of the frustrating fact that there are many, many backlogs in rape kit testing across the country, women know that cooperating with authorities and reporting your rape exposes a victim to lifetime granular surveillance at the DNA level. Now, the imperfections of DNA testing expose every rape victim who submits a test to the false positives, and people who know nothing about the strength of the case will assume that being suspect or being arrested is the same as being convicted: https://gizmodo.com/when-bad-dna-tests-lead-to-false-convict...
No, but we will likely see fewer people coming forward about being raped if they are know that their rape kit can and will be used against them in the future. The SFPD's mistake here is allowing the db of victim DNA from rape kits to ever interface with the general DNA database they use.
In the US, lawful search is limited to reasonable suspicion and warrants. This means that yes, some crimes do go unsolved that might be solved otherwise if police, or the state in general, had unlimited powers of search. It is a trade-off.
It's kind of like how we probably shouldn't arrest people without legal residency when they show up at the police station to report a serious crime. Yes, they're violating the terms of their visa, but ensuring people in that position continue to report even more serious crimes is probably more important.
loudtieblahblah|4 years ago
I didn't realize being a victim meant you couldn't be a perp of other crimes.
comradesmith|4 years ago
The point is that being raped shouldn’t have made her more likely to be caught.
I think this is a fair stance to take, as DNA from rape kits being used for future tracking of the raped is going to disincentivise the use of rape kits.
I want to live in a world with less sexual violence, and if rape victims can submit DNA evidence without having to worry about state tracking (and those kits actually be analysed) then I think we can get a step closer to that world.
scotuswroteus|4 years ago
Let me explain why that difference matters. Now, on top of the frustrating fact that there are many, many backlogs in rape kit testing across the country, women know that cooperating with authorities and reporting your rape exposes a victim to lifetime granular surveillance at the DNA level. Now, the imperfections of DNA testing expose every rape victim who submits a test to the false positives, and people who know nothing about the strength of the case will assume that being suspect or being arrested is the same as being convicted: https://gizmodo.com/when-bad-dna-tests-lead-to-false-convict...
eindiran|4 years ago
mypalmike|4 years ago
space_fountain|4 years ago
retrac|4 years ago