Is Chris Christie “Pulling a Palin?” New Jersey Rape Survivors Billed for Forensic Kits

A rape kit is a forensic evidence kit, and is used to collect any physical evidence that may have been left behind by the rapist. It involves having the victim report to a medical facility as soon after the crime as possible, where samples are taken of hair, blood, fingernail scrapings, vaginal swabs and other invasive tests. It can be highly traumatic for the victim to have this type of evidence collected just after they have been sexually assaulted, but it is key to the identification, and prosecution of the perpetrator. Back in the late ’90s, in one community in…