Kym Worthy
In 2009, 11,341 untested sexual assault kits were found during a routine tour of a Detroit police storage warehouse, some dating back to 1984.
Since then, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has been on a campaign to get those kits tested.
So far, of 10,000 tested, 817 serial rapists have been identified.
Worthy, in an interview with Nancy Kaffer of the Detroit Free Press says:
This is how I try to put it in context for people: There are estimated to be 400,000 untested rape kits in the country. In one city, in one county, in one state, we had 11,341.
That means a couple of things: Number one, this problem is a lot more pervasive than people could ever have imagined. Number two, (that's) on top of the very low rate that people report in the first place. That means there is much more sexual assault going on, that it's much more pervasive than people think. I think nationally the number is about 20% of rapes that are reported, and when you get to the prosecution stage it's very, very little. . . .That's very sobering, very sad and very pathetic. . . .
A rapist rapes on average seven to 11 times before they're caught. . . . Of our set of 817 . . . over 50 of them have 10 to 15 hits apiece.
