The Secret History of the Rape Kit
A True Crime Story
By Pagan Kennedy (Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor)

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The Secret History of the Rape Kit is that, but it is more, to the extent that the title feels limiting. It discusses the origins of the forensic tool for sexual assaults that we colloquially call the rape kit, originally the Vitullo kit, now by a variety of names. It also is a survivor’s statement in itself, the biography of Marty Goddard who at least deserves shared credit with Vitullo in its creation, a consideration of the sociological implications of technology, a survey of modern developments in sexual assault forensics, and a consideration of modern and historical views on sexual assault.

I am intentionally avoiding telling too much of the underlying story here as a rhetorical maneuver: a man doing that is sort of the gravamen of the book’s complaint in the first place. I also am going to avoid picking the book apart into its components to review each, which explicates my criticism there in and of itself. It concludes strongly, but at points it feels more like an essay collection than a unified history.

The book offers a lot of information on the process of its writing, which adds to its quality and effect. Naturally, I wanted more writing on the sociological function of technology, particularly as it relates to gender. As the book notes, what is so interesting about the rape kit is not the technological function (remember, this predates the forensic use of DNA), but technology as process meant to shape the treatment of alleged sexual assault.

There was good information on the development of kit through time after its creation, including contemporary plans to make it more accessible and equitable, but I wanted a more rounded discussion there. The complaints there were dismissed too contemptuously, buried in a footnote. I can imagine the criminal justice concerns with some of the newer ideas, acknowledging that some of those are biased or non-serious, and thought it deserved a proper vetting.

The history provokes a lot of questions. The book leans too much on the destiny of biography, stacking supposition on inference to create a narrative (I think specifically of the miniatures here) and I did not like the treatment of Goddard’s mental health. I have an advanced copy, but I hope that there are some further edits: there is some repetition of facts at points that I do not feel is intentional, and a few idiosyncratic descriptions of Chicago.

The history here is one that is important for you to read and understand, and the author presents it in a straightforward, occasional brutal, always informative way. Really, the problem here is the one central to the author’s own story: the people who need to read this the most seem the least likely to.

My thanks to the author, Pagan Kennedy, for writing the book and to the publisher, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, for making the ARC available to me.