Posted on 05/10/2022 1:31:38 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Smithsonian Acquires First U.S. Rape Kit Designed by Martha Goddard May 09, 2022
Share Email 585910.jpg Photo credit: National Museum of American History
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum mark the ending of Sexual Assault Awareness Month this April by announcing the joint acquisition for the Smithsonian’s permanent collections of the “Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit for Sexual Assault Examination,” the innovation that helped accelerate successful investigation and prosecution of sexual assault in the United States and whose influence continues to this day.
Martha “Marty” Goddard (1941–2015) generated the idea for the kit between 1972 and 1978 when she worked as a women’s rights advocate and founded the Citizens Committee for Victim Assistance in Chicago. Goddard understood the pain and stigma surrounding rape and realized that thousands of sexual assault cases had low prosecution rates because there was no standardized procedure for collecting and preserving evidence. Along with colleagues, she undertook a research and development process that involved interviewing policymakers, law enforcement agents, attorneys and hospital workers in a quest to understand how survivors were treated and how evidence was collected. Her goal was to design a new system to increase the probability of suspects and criminals being identified and prosecuted.
Goddard envisioned a kit that standardized the process of collecting and preserving evidence that would contain all the tools for evidence collection in one box and provide instructions for collection, documentation and counseling resources for survivors. She presented her design for a kit to Louis Vitullo (1924–2006), a Chicago police sergeant in the city’s crime lab. Soon after the meeting, he introduced the “Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit for Sexual Assault Examination.” Goddard advocated for the kit’s implementation and worked to distribute it into the public safety system.
In researching the history of the kit, the Smithsonian curatorial team considered the significance, impact and historical contributions of the object. Versions of these kits, commonly known as “rape kits,” are standard protocol in hospitals across the nation and the world. Goddard’s work continues to stand as an enduring and powerful innovation today, as a sexual assault is attempted every 68 seconds in the U.S.
“Sexual assault is among the most frequently occurring crimes in our country while also being the most underreported and prosecuted, and probably the least understood” said Katherine Ott, curator of medical history at the National Museum of American History. “This kit prompts us to link a range of histories, and with it we can expand upon and connect what we already know about women’s activism, forensic science and gender relations to the history of sexual violence and our cultural reluctance to talk about it.”
“This kit is constructed of simple, familiar materials that become a powerful instrument of change when assembled together with instructions,” said Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, curator of contemporary design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. “Bringing this kit into the collection of the national design museum challenges an enduring perception that design is solely a product created by an expert for a consumer, rather it advocates design as a means of social transformation available to anyone irrespective of formal training.”
Although the kit is currently not on display, it is available online.
How about the first abortion kit?
This information is monumental. The world would not have survived much longer without the Smithsonian having an Original Rape Kit.
Put it up high on a pedestal and surround it with the dead bodies of millions and millions and millions of innocent babies.
A fountain of blood for a nation of ghouls.
Is the first rape kit more notable than the first finger print kit? First suspect-sketch kit? These media cretins will do anything to advance The Agenda.
Notice how the term “rape kit” has popped up all over media in the last week? Constant manipulation continues.
Look at these interesting details from the link to the rape kit itself:
OBJECT NAME
evidence collection kit, sexual assault rape kit
DATE MADE
ca 1982
PREVIOUS OWNER
Dreiser, Mary Sladek
DESIGNER
Playboy Enterprises, Inc.
Goddard, Marty
ADAPTER
Vitullo, Louis R.
COLLABORATOR
Citizens Committee for Victim Assistance
Playboy Foundation
Looks like the Smithsonian should be giving Playboy Foundation the credit for this kit.
You are opposed to getting evidence to convict a rapist?
What is it with the men on this board? You’re against rape kits? Why? Are you afraid you might have left some dna behind?
Ignorant question.
I’ve already done my quotient of those today.
No it’s not. The rape kit is a significant advance in law enforcement.
The original prototype is an historic artifact of significance. It’s not the Wright Brothers airplane important, but it was important.
Speaking as a man and as the son, husband and father of women, you are right to be irked at some of the men on this board.
If something happened to my nearest and dearest, I want the criminals caught!
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