11 hours ago
Students offered free rape test kits
Students are being offered free rape test kits to collect and store the DNA of alleged attackers in an effort to combat sexual violence on university campuses.
The set includes a swab for alleged victims to use on themselves at home and then send to a testing company, which freezes some of the genetic material in case they decide to report an attack to the police and need physical evidence.
However, the creators of the initiative said its main aim was to act as a deterrent to non-consensual sex, because it would mean that any student would know that 'if you don't get consent, your DNA could stay on file'.
Katie White, co-founder of not-for-profit organisation Enough, said: 'A lot of people see it as like the breathalyser. The existence of it prevents what it is designed to measure.'
Ms White and fellow co-founder Tom Allchurch have piloted the initiative at the University of Bristol, where 8,000 students have been provided with the kits.
The pair, who left their jobs to launch the venture with £100,000 from donors, are in talks with other universities, as well as police and crime commissioners, to run similar pilots in other cities.
They said it was not a 'criminal justice' alternative to reporting a rape or sexual assault to the police – which users are advised to do if that is their intent.
Instead, the duo said it was designed to provide an avenue for 'social justice' where victims report a potential offence that they might otherwise not take any further.
The swab, similar to a Covid test pack, comes with a free post envelope to send to a lab which tests half the sample and freezes the remainder. Each student receives a number and DNA result, telling them if the material is male or female, but otherwise all details are anonymous.
Each alleged victim is also provided with an encrypted digital account in which they can write down what happened, which could provide contemporaneous evidence if they subsequently decide to report a sexual assault to police.
'Most people who go to the police go a week afterwards,' said Ms White.
Students are also advised to consider a checklist of actions such as taking pregnancy and sexual disease tests, while they are further offered access to online therapy videos by an established clinical specialist. Alleged victims are also given the opportunity to make an anonymous statement which can be publicised on social media.
Ms White said: 'Ninety per cent of students don't report [sexual violence], they want to forget what happened and move on, rather than feel like they are turning it into a bigger deal.
'Many can be put off by... [the wait for a] trial, on average over two years. They know conviction rates are low, and they also fear that their friends may not believe them.'
During the pilot scheme in Bristol, 200 students reported assaults or rapes, compared with just two who reported attacks to the university during the same time frame the previous year. Ms White said others had used the scheme to check if they had been a victim of date rape.
A survey of Bristol students found 90 per cent knew about Enough, 70 per cent said they felt it had prevented sexual violence, and 86 per cent said they would report a rape to Enough.
Ms White added: 'It is not about replacing criminal justice. It's complementary to it. The only thing that it is an alternative to is inaction.
'We not going to break this cycle of rape and sexual violence going up unless we have a form of reporting that victims are comfortable with and perpetrators feel threatened by.'
