In Some Places Across US, Rape Vics Forced To Pay Cost Of Their Own Forensic Exams
Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes in reason:
It sounds almost too unbelievable to be true, doesn't it? We don't ask home-invasion victims to cover the cost of dusting for fingerprints or the families of homicide victims to subsidize blood spatter analysis. But rape victims are being billed for the cost of collecting forensic evidence in the crimes against them.This runs contrary to federal law, which says states or municipalities must fund investigating rape allegations as they would any other crime. When the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was reauthorized in 2005, it stipulated that all states must either provide a free forensic medical exam directly or provide reimbursement for such an exam, regardless of whether a victim ultimately decides to press charges or cooperate with law enforcement. The 2013 reauthorization (which takes effect in 2015) specifies that victims can't be charged up front for the exam (also known as a "rape kit") and asked to seek reimbursement from insurance later.
But they say the devil is in the details, and the VAWA doesn't provide many, leaving it up to states and municipalities to work out who covers what. Thirty-four states pay for forensic exams using money from their general victim compensation funds, according to a May report from Urban Institute. (These funds are generally built from fines and penalties paid by convicted offenders, not tax dollars.) Eleven states leave it to local law enforcement or prosecution funds; some use a combination of special funds and money from state public safety or health and human services departments; and three, including Louisiana, leave it to the county or parish to cover the cost.
In Louisiana, local coroners are supposed to provide the free forensic exams. "But in many cases, such as in New Orleans, cash-strapped coroners outsource that responsibility to another entity" such as local hospitals, The Times-Picayune reported in September. And these hospitals vary greatly in how and whom they bill. Some eat the whole cost themselves, or did until recently. Some cover testing for forensic evidence but bill victims for things like pregnancy and HIV tests. Some send patients the full tab, some bill insurance companies, and some bill the state. Some require anyone seeing a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner--the only hospital staff qualified to collect forensic evidence from rape victims--to be admitted through the emergency room, which adds hundreds of dollars to the total tab.
The cost of collecting forensic evidence tends to run more than $1,000. Some states cap compensation for testing at a few hundred dollars.
Nolan Brown adds:
With rape, the victim's body may be the only crime scene, and collecting forensic evidence & receiving medical care are part of the same process. It's not that states have some totally nefarious or mysogynistic plot to treat rape differently than other crimes; but it does show that we still don't know how to treat rape in the criminal justice system and there's a lot of room for discussion and reform.
This is a harsh and inadvertent reminder of the difference between fantasies and the real world.
No one can make a crime "unhappen". No one can make an injury "unhappen". No one can undo an episode of police brutality, and you must REACH the courtroom to claim a right. You cannot command the resources of anyone or any agency to your ends. The "system" does NOT care about the individual first; at best it can only apply generalities - with great force.
Regardless of how much money is thrown.
Radwaste at October 10, 2014 6:21 AM
I have to admit I don't get it. If funding for forensic evidence gathering in rape cases is being budgeted differently from other evidence gathering, why? It seems like it should be part of the normal budgeting process. Is there more to this story -- some kind of weird inter-dependence with the federal government, or something? Rape cases are certainly not the only kinds of cases where forensic exams are performed on victims.
Cousin Dave at October 10, 2014 6:54 AM
"If funding for forensic evidence gathering in rape cases is being budgeted differently from other evidence gathering, why? It seems like it should be part of the normal budgeting process. "
Because it is not within the scope of the actual evidence collection, police forensics unit, so it must be outsourced to a third party, often a private doctor or hospital.
There are many things in life that the government is not going to compensate us for.
I don't see this as particularly egregious. I bet the hospital ends up writing most rape exams off, after a cursory attempt to collect.
What I find even worse is the guy in New Mexico who got billed by the hospital for all the non consensual procedures the hospital performed on him at the direction of the police to 'find drugs".
Isab at October 10, 2014 8:36 AM
"If funding for forensic evidence gathering in rape cases is being budgeted differently from other evidence gathering, why? It seems like it should be part of the normal budgeting process. "
Because coroners, fingerprint people either are associated with the police department or are contracted with them, those who administer rape kits are usually Drs or nurses, having no association with police. Also if she decides to not pursue it, police may never have been involved. I'm not sure what the rules are with medical professionals, as in if someone comes in asking for a rape kit, are police automatically called or only if that is requested too.
If the latter, the first time police may have heard about it is when they get a bill.
Joe J at October 10, 2014 9:52 AM
Isab's response to Cousin Dave makes me think that perhaps the police force should have a doctor on staff. Or at least a nurse practitioner, or perhaps a paramedic, to perform the medical aspects of evidence gathering. Not just for rape victims, but for gunshot, battery,* or stab victims.
But I haven't concerned myself with the logistics of this, and don't know how cost effective it would be. I personally have no reservations for those victims of violent crimes, including rape, to be on the taxpayer's tab for the medical evidence necessary. Even if the system is left as it is, I have no problem with taxpayers footing the bill for the standard cost of the medical exam. But of course, I can only speak for myself. For all I know the majority of taxpayers think, "Rape victims can pay for their own goddamned medical exams."
* You can pry my Oxford comma from my cold, dead, and decomposing hand.
Patrick at October 10, 2014 9:54 AM
-- * You can pry my Oxford comma from my cold, dead, and decomposing hand.
Salut!
gooseegg at October 10, 2014 10:57 AM
For all I know the majority of taxpayers think, "Rape victims can pay for their own goddamned medical exams."
They can if they refuse to press charges.
lujlp at October 10, 2014 12:09 PM
In China, executioners charge a victim for the cost of the bullet.
jefe at October 10, 2014 2:32 PM
The feminist whining about every single little female "issue" is making me care less and less about any single female issue, real or not.
Matt at October 11, 2014 8:12 AM
"every single little female 'issue'"
Lovely, Matt. So, if you are attacked and anally gang-raped, do you think you should pay for the forensic exams necessary to prosecute your attackers?
This isn't a "female" issue. This is a crime victims issue.
Gail at October 13, 2014 8:30 AM
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