The Secret History of The Rape Kit
Pagan Kennedy, author of Inventology, the 2016 book on inventions that bring about social change, and the people behind them, became fascinated by what she describes as a “a piece of technology designed to hold men accountable for brutalizing women.” So, who invented the standardized rape kit?
Newspaper reports credited Sergeant Louis R. Vitullo, but a few also mentioned a woman collaborator. Kennedy proceeded to investigate, and the result is this cogent narrative about this feminist technology and its true inventor, the activist Martha “Marty” Goddard. The Secret History of The Rape Kit is a gripping book about a grim topic, written with exemplary grace.
In 1972, Goddard, a volunteer for a teen crisis helpline in Chicago, realized that many of those runaway teens had fled home after being molested by a family member or teacher. Goddard, Kennedy writes, was moved to speak to rape survivors, attorneys, and hospital workers to gain insights into a crime that left a victim feeling hopeless, even responsible for her own condition.
What if there was a way to prove that rape had happened, Goddard had asked.
