Rape support groups have expressed “serious concerns” Self-selfie ‘rape kit’ Being marketed towards University student In Britain.
The kits allow those who have been sexually harassed or raped to take a swab and sent to a laboratory. Alleged criminal’s DNAHalf the sample is frozen and can be placed For 20 years and handed over to the police if the incident is later reported.
Such kits have been entrusted to students in UK University premises in recent months, the companies stated that the kits serve as a barrier and provide a simple way to report rape.
However, the rape crisis England and Wales have warned that although the kits may look like a good idea, there are concerns about how they work.
This warned the remaining people that the kit may not be able to collect the evidence necessary to prove rape and that any evidence collected could not be legally acceptable – giving them “false hope” that it can help in a legal case.
“Rape Crisis England & Wales (RCEW) knows that in some parts of the country, self -great ‘rape kit’ is being marked in a way for students and universities to survive – mainly, but not always, to report rapes to women and girls, and to stop the rapists, and” said the rapists.
“Although a self-vib kit may look like a good idea, the evidence collection must be done safely and legally obedient to use in criminal trials.”
It states: “AT-hom kit cannot offer that level of safety and give false hope to the remaining people that whatever evidence they collect, it can be trusted in criminal testing.”
It was said that professional forensic medical examinations are forensically cleaned in a clean, controlled environment with strict rules to avoid contamination, which makes the evidence reliable.
Unlike the self-west kit, they also include assessment of injuries, clothes, blood samples and other medical findings.
The kits have emerged amid low rates of convicts for rape, five of the six victims of Britain have been selected to not report a rape.
In 2024, 71,227 rapes were registered by the police, but only 2.7 percent of them were accused by the end of the year.
Companies selling kit say that they provide “simple, easy to report and make real detention” to the survivors with “easy, easy ways”.
Enough, a company that has handed over free kits to Bristol University and sells them online for £ 20 says that their main purpose is to act as a preventive, not to provide criminal justice.
Told this Independent Students with 70 percent polling in Bristol said that the kit had prevented sexual violence in the campus, 90 percent of the not-for-profit is known and more than 200 reports have been made in just six months.
“The remaining people are asking for enough. The most common questions they ask, ‘How does it not already exist?” They thank enough for preventing young women from raping. “Katie White, said enough co-founder.
Its website says that if a person wants to report rape to the police, then they should first visit the sexual harassment referral center (SARC).
It also states that the major KCS confirmed the DNA evidence collected by its kits – which are created by the same forensic experts who make them to the police – may be acceptable in the test, but there is no guarantee.
The rape crisis said that while these self -swap kits can provide DNA evidence, it is rarely used in rape tests because they cannot prove that any activity was non -real.
Although to tell people that they can get more support on their website, the rape crisis also expressed concern that kit experts do not offer in-purson support: “The remaining people need to be shocked and assured, and to listen and believe. A self-wisdom kit cannot provide emotional support or not provide an independent support worker, but an independent support worker can not provide an independent support, but an independent work can not be provided. Sexual violent, or an independent sexual violent.
Following the Forensic and Legal Medicine (FFLM) faculty, the rape crisis is the latest organization facing its concern, which issued a joint statement on the issue last year.
It said that it has not currently not supported the use of self-self-kit, and if they do not have the correct information, it can “put the remaining people at risk”.