Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

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Shelving Justice: The National Problem of Untested Sexual Assault Kits (SAKs)

Wed, March 13, 2019
Dinner Program
Rebecca Campbell

Sexual assault kits (SAKs; also termed “rape kits”) contain biological evidence that can be tested for DNA to assist in the investigation and prosecution of criminal sexual assaults. However, in jurisdictions throughout the United States, police have not been submitting rape kits for DNA testing and instead they are put in storage, untested and forgotten for years, sometimes decades. In this talk, Rebecca Campbell, professor of psychology at Michigan State University, will review the scope of this problem in the United States and examine the underlying reasons why this problem is occurring in so many communities. She will also present empirical data from Detroit and other U.S. cities on the root causes of the problem and suggest strategies for testing previously unsubmitted SAKs.

Rebecca Campbell is a professor of psychology at Michigan State University. She holds a Ph.D. in community psychology with a concentration in statistics, also from Michigan State University. For the past 25 years, she has been conducting community-based research on violence against women and children, with an emphasis on sexual assault. Campbell’s research examines how contact with the legal and medical systems affects adult, adolescent, and pediatric victims’ psychological and physical health.

Most recently, she was the lead researcher for the National Institute of Justice-funded Detroit Sexual Assault Kit Action Research Project, which was a four-year multidisciplinary study of Detroit’s untested rape kits. Campbell also conducts training for law enforcement and multidisciplinary practitioners in civilian, military, and campus community settings on the neurobiology of trauma.

In 2015, Campbell received the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, Vision 21 Crime Victims Research Award.


View Video: YouTube with Rebecca Campbell

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

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