Idaho Sheriff Says Most Rapes Are Actually Consensual Sex


In Idaho, rape victims who come forward and submit themselves to the invasive rape kit collection process may never have those kits tested. That’s because currently, law enforcement officials are permitted to decide when they will submit a kit for testing, or even if they will bother to test it at all.

A proposed bill, HB 528, would change these rules. The bill would create a comprehensive system of collection and tracking of physical evidence in all sexual assault investigations. Police departments and clinics would be responsible for sending in all the kits they collect for testing, unless the victim requests otherwise.

This seems like a step in the right direction, but Bingham County Sheriff, Craig Rowland, thinks the bill is completely unnecessary, since most of the rapes he investigates are really just consensual sex.

“They need to let us decide if we’re going to send the kit and when we send the kits in. Because the majority of our rapes, not to say that we don’t have rapes, we do, but the majority of our rapes that are called in, are actually consensual sex,” Rowland told local station KIDK.

According to Rowland, most rapes that are reported are just the result of things going too far and someone getting scared, which sounds more like rape then consensual sex.

Rowland, helpfully, gave an example of a hypothetical teenage girl having consensual sex with her boyfriend, but being too afraid to tell her parents. Maybe her parents refuse to believe the sex was consensual? According to the Sheriff, people could just be overreacting when they report a rape, file a police report, and undergo a four to six hour invasive test to collect evidence. After all, if someone was really raped they’d probably be too traumatized to go through all the trouble just to have the Sheriff tell them they were likely making a mistake.

The Idaho Press-Tribune reported that inconsistent assault kit testing was a statewide problem. Due to a lack of uniform policy regarding the submission of the kits, some law enforcement agencies, such as the one in Nampa, were submitting as few as 10% of their kits. While the reasons for not submitting a kit may vary for each case, the report also noted that there was no accessible way to track the reason a kit was not submitted. There is zero accountability for departments if they don’t submit a kit for testing since they can just say it wasn’t pertinent to the investigation.

This is just the way that Sheriff Rowland likes it. While he acknowledges that the he really thinks the Legislature is “trying to help,” he would prefer if they didn’t tell him how, or when, to do his job.

“I really believe the Legislature needs to take a strong look at allowing law enforcement to do their job and not try to dictate what we need to do.” He said in the interview.

Fortunately, the House disagreed and passed the bill. It will now go to the Senate.

h/t The Slot

Featured image screengrab via video