Project Description: In 2017, The Kentucky Office of the Attorney General’s Office on Victims Advocacy provided funding for the Kentucky SAFE Kit Backlog Research Project to examine the problem of unsubmitted sexual assault forensic examination (SAFE) kits that were collected but never submitted to a crime lab for analysis. The SAFE KIT Backlog Research Project is employing a holistic research approach to examine this problem by providing data-driven insights into the statewide response to sexual assault. The research team is collecting information to understand the factors that contributed to the number of unsubmitted SAFE kits, the characteristics associated with SAFE kits, kit submission rates throughout the Commonwealth, as well as testing results and case outcomes. Additionally the project is evaluating the impact of efforts by the Sexual Assault Response Team Advisory Committee (SART-AC), the DANY Grant Sexual Assault Evidence Taskforce, the Department of Criminal Justice Training (DOCJT), and the impact of Senate Bill 63 (SB 63) on responses to sexual assault in Kentucky.
Visit the site frequently for new reports and publications that come out of the study: https://louisville.edu/justice/CJ-research-1/cj-uofl-research/#Rape_Kit_Backlog_Processing
