Is it reasonable to drop a rape charge because a rape kit was not used as follow-up to a crime?
The Cook County State’s Attorney seems to think so after a 25 year old University of Chicago student claims to have been the victim of 2005 criminal sexual assault. In a recent published report the attorney for the victim says the staff at the university’s student center did not collect the appropriate evidence to prove a rape took place.
Chicago attorney Martin Dolan, who is also a former Cook County State’s Attorney, says a rape kit would normally be a decisive factor in the ultimate decision to charge, but not always the deciding factor.
Protecting students should be the number one priority in a campus setting. For the university not to have the appropriate safeguards in place, he says, is troubling.