Abstract Purpose Prior national, state, and local investigations of law enforcement agencies have revealed large stockpiles of sexual assault kits (SAKs) that were not submitted to a laboratory for forensic testing. The failure to submit these SAKs has resulted in incomplete investigations for sexual assault victims and a lack of accountability for sexual assault offenders. To direct national policy aimed at testing these kits and reducing future stockpiles, it is essential to realize the magnitude of the problem. Methods This study uses information on known unsubmitted SAK counts from 911 counties in 15 states and a multitude of county-level covariates to estimate the national number of unsubmitted SAKs during the period 2014–2018. Results Based on 95% confidence intervals, there were an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 unsubmitted SAKs in the United States during this period. A county's population was the strongest predictor of whether the county had an unsubmitted SAK count, while county sociodemographic factors and state legislative actions were the strongest predictors of the size of county unsubmitted SAK counts. Conclusions To improve future estimates, LEAs should account for SAKs throughout the investigative and laboratory submission stages and states should conduct annual high-quality audits that leverage tracking processes.

中文翻译：

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多少正义被剥夺？对美国未提交的性侵犯工具包的估计

摘要 目的 先前对执法机构的国家、州和地方调查显示，大量库存的性攻击工具包 (SAK) 未提交给实验室进行法医检测。未能提交这些 SAK 导致对性侵犯受害者的调查不完整，并且缺乏对性侵犯罪犯的问责。为了指导旨在测试这些试剂盒和减少未来库存的国家政策，必须认识到问题的严重性。方法 本研究使用来自 15 个州 911 个县的已知未提交 SAK 计数信息和多个县级协变量来估计 2014-2018 年期间未提交 SAK 的全国数量。结果基于 95% 的置信区间，估计有 300,000 到 400，在此期间，美国有 000 个未提交的 SAK。一个县的人口是该县是否有未提交 SAK 计数的最强预测因子，而县社会人口因素和州立法行动是该县未提交 SAK 计数大小的最强预测因子。结论 为了改进未来的估计，LEA 应在整个调查和实验室提交阶段考虑 SAK，各州应利用跟踪流程进行年度高质量审计。