DURHAM COUNTY, N.C. — The number of untested sexual assault evidence kits in North Carolina is shrinking, and supporters think it's a step in the right direction. 

In Durham County, the district attorney’s office just received more funding to help better serve cases related to these kits.

What You Need To Know

  • In 2018, there were more than 16,000 untested sexual assault evidence kits in North Carolina

  • Thanks to increased prioritization and grant funding over the years, about 95% of those kits have since been tested

  • In Durham County, the district attorney’s office just received more funding to help better serve cases related to these kits

  • The executive director for the Orange County Rape Crisis Center says funding like this is a start to restoring faith in the justice system

It’s been about six years since North Carolina took an inventory of untested sexual assault evidence kits. According to the state, in 2018, there were more than 16,000 that were backlogged.

Thanks to grant funding over the years, about 95% of those kits have been tested, according to the state’s dashboard.

The 2018 inventory of untested sexual assault kits revealed that Durham County had the highest number in the state, standing at 1,783 kits. Thanks to previous funding, all of the county’s kits that required testing have now been submitted. Now, more than $1 million in funding will help the district attorney’s office provide more legal services to survivors.

Rachel Valentine, the executive director for the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, says backlogs of these kits are far too common and while she supports this funding initiative, she also wants to see funding for other survivor resources.

The Orange County Rape Crisis Center served about 1,200 clients in 2023.

“That was high for us. We’re usually in the 900 to 1000 range. Last year was a pretty high number,” Valentine said.

Recently, the Durham County District Attorney’s Office was awarded a $1.15 million federal grant to provide more dedicated services to cases related to sexual assault kits.

Valentine says, in her experience, many clients chose not to get a kit collected as evidence.

“Most survivors of sexual violence are not actually engaging with the criminal justice system at all. That is a relatively small sliver of the folks that we serve,” Valentine said.

She believes the backlog, which was not just a problem in Durham County, is one reason for that.

“When that system is so obviously broken, it takes that away for even this small number of survivors who can potentially seek a criminal justice solution,” Valentine said. “It decreases safety for everyone when we fail to test these kits.”

Valentine says she thinks fixing the backlog of untested kits is just one part of the process in restoring survivors’ faith in the legal process.

“It doesn't fix the problem of those kits having been backlogged. Right? This is not the same thing as justice, but it's a step in the right direction,” Valentine said. “There are a lot of survivors that are really angry about the state of the backlog, and rightfully so.”

While she supports funding for legal services, Valentine would also like to see money prioritized for centers like the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, which she says is facing funding challenges.

“It’s one of many issues that survivors are facing, and we would love to see this same type of attention and same type of resources going to the whole spectrum of survivor care,” Valentine said.

Because Durham County has already sent all of its backlogged kits to be tested, this $1.15 million three-year grant will help fund a prosecutor and legal assistant dedicated to the sexual assault kit initiative, as well as compensation for expert witnesses that testify at trial, specialty DNA testing as needed as well as the costs of a survivors’ food, hotel and travel during trial.

Other counties that had the highest number of untested sexual assault kits in the state were Wake, Guilford, Forsyth, Mecklenburg, Buncombe and New Hanover. Of those, Guilford is the only county with any remaining tests that still need to be submitted and the state’s dashboard says it has one test left to be submitted.