One of the most powerful inventions of the 20th century is also an object that no one ever wants a reason to use. The sexual-assault-evidence collection box, colloquially known as the 'rape kit,' is a simple yet potent tool: a small case, perhaps made of cardboard, containing items such as sterile nail clippers, cotton swabs, slides for holding bodily fluids, paper bags, and a tiny plastic comb. Designed to gather and preserve biological evidence found on the body of a person reporting a sexual assault, it introduced standardized forensics into the investigation of rape where there had previously been no common protocol. Its contents could be used in court to establish facts so that juries wouldn't have to rely solely on testimony, making it easier to convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent. The kit, conceived within the Chicago Police Department in the mid-1970s, was trademarked under the name 'Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit,' after Sergeant Louis Vitullo. The Chicago police...
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