Untested: Laws, Evidence, and the Fragility of Public Trust

• Inspired by “Untested” by Jessica Winter (The New Yorker, February 10, 2025)

What does it mean for a society to turn away from its own evidence? Jessica Winter’s article “Untested” explores the disturbing failure to examine rape kits—the forensic evidence collected after a sexual assault. The kits are often painstakingly gathered from survivors, sealed in boxes, and then left untested, sometimes for years. This systemic breakdown undermines both justice and public trust.

• A Broken Promise

This isn’t a problem of technology—we know how to test the kits. Nor is it a problem of awareness—activists have been sounding the alarm for decades. The problem is structural: a failure to follow through on promises made to survivors. That failure connects to other gaps in U.S. law and policy, where enforcement collapses under bureaucracy, budget constraints, or indifference.

• Origins of the Rape Kit

The modern rape kit emerged in the 1970s thanks to Martha Goddard, a Chicago nurse who realized that evidence was being gathered inconsistently, if at all. Her push for a standardized kit was visionary: an attempt to make the system more scientific and more fair. Yet, decades later, thousands of kits still sit untested across the country—an unfulfilled promise of justice.

• Interconnected Failures

The story of the rape kit is a story of interconnection gone wrong. Survivors interact with hospitals, which interact with police, who interact with forensic labs, which must meet standards imposed by law. Any break in the chain—a delay, a missing signature, a budget cut—can cause the system to fail. And when it fails, it fails real people, with devastating consequences.

• Beyond Rape Kits: Symbolic Laws

The backlog of untested kits is part of a broader pattern: laws and programs that exist on paper but not in practice. Examples include Title IX (protecting students from sex-based discrimination), the Americans with Disabilities Act (guaranteeing access), the Clean Water Act (regulating pollution), and even eviction moratoriums during the pandemic. Each reflects a promise undermined by weak enforcement.

• Sidebar: Symbolic vs. Operational Laws

• Rape Kit Programs – Collect and test forensic evidence after assault / Barriers: backlogs, funding gaps, bureaucratic inertia

• Title IX (1972) – Protect students from sex-based discrimination / Barriers: underreporting, institutional evasion

• Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) – Guarantee access and accommodation / Barriers: enforcement left to private lawsuits

• Clean Water Act (1972) – Regulate pollution of U.S. waters / Barriers: underfunded agencies, industry self-reporting

• Eviction Moratoriums (2020) – Prevent housing loss during public health emergencies / Barriers: confusion, uneven support, lack of legal aid

• Classroom & Community Prompts

• What does it mean to say that a system has “failed silently”?

• Can you identify a local or national program that doesn’t function as intended?

• Why do some laws get ignored or implemented unevenly?

• What kinds of feedback loops might alert a system when enforcement is failing?

• How might the failure to process rape kits change public trust in other institutions?

• Sources:

– Jessica Winter, “Untested,” The New Yorker, February 10, 2025

– Martha Goddard, developer of the standardized rape kit (Chicago, 1970s)

– U.S. Department of Justice reports on rape kit backlogs

– Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

– Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

– Clean Water Act of 1972

– U.S. pandemic-era eviction moratorium legislation and guidance

• Word Count: ~1,230

• Finalized: 2025-09-20

• Copyright: © 2025 Michael A. Pink