--- title: Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit | TIME description: There's currently a backlog of Rape kits in America. But what are they, and what's exactly in one? canonical: https://time.com/video/ewC6QwWR/ og:title: Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit og:description: There's currently a backlog of Rape kits in America. But what are they, and what's exactly in one? og:url: https://time.com/video/ewC6QwWR/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ewC6QwWR/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit twitter:description: There's currently a backlog of Rape kits in America. But what are they, and what's exactly in one? twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ewC6QwWR/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit [Watch (HLS stream): Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ewC6QwWR.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2014-07-17. There's currently a backlog of Rape kits in America. But what are they, and what's exactly in one?_ --- Jul 27, 2023 5:00 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Minneapolis Police Admit to Discovering 1,500 Untested Rape Kits, Spanning Over 30 Years, Found in Storage](/video/A6paq2bC/) ### Minneapolis Police Admit to Discovering 1,500 Untested Rape Kits, Spanning Over 30 Years, Found in Storage [Things to Have in Your Hurricane Emergency Kit](/video/s8WuRF9S/) ### Things to Have in Your Hurricane Emergency Kit [Police Departments Get $79M To Test Backlogged Rape Kits](/video/usgKl5wE/) ### Police Departments Get $79M To Test Backlogged Rape Kits --- ## Transcript A rape kit or evidence collection kit has all the information in this one box. The first step is the oral swab and smear. The second envelope involves [ UNKNOWN ] specimens. The third step is trace evidence. The fourth step is collecting [ CROSSTALK ]. [ CROSSTALK ] The reason for having a rape kit is to preserve the evidence and to maintain chain of custody. Which means that. It will be very helpful for law enforcement to prosecute a case if we have been sure that all the steps are followed and that nobody else contaminated that evidence. And it has 15 envelopes that go from less intrusive to more intrusive. It can take up to seven hours sometimes. Depending on the patience, level of emotional distress or depending of if the patient is intoxicated. Also the examiner has to change gloves in between envelopes, has to explain to the patient each step. Has to get consent. The first set of envelopes are non- genital. So it involves swabs of the mouth. And, fingernail scraping and a bunch of other smears and swabs to collect debris and any other evidence that can be used. The last part of the process is the genital part which is often the hardest. Ist. They involve anal swabs, vaginal swabs, and perianal swabs and cervical area for women. Those can be very, very traumatizing and often, it's just going to have that patient have flashbacks and start really to have post traumatic stress disorder symptoms. A lot of patients will. Percent very upset, other will laugh. So there isn't, they all present differently. But what is certain is that the kits can really take some rapist from the community. And what we know about perpetrators of sexual assault is that they often do it many times. Times, so if you can take one because of one good rave kit, then you're saving a lot of people's' lives. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit","description":"There's currently a backlog of Rape kits in America. 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