Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for a free ARC of this book. This book will be released 1/14/2025.

This is a well written, fascinating depiction of the story behind the development of the rape kit in the 1970s. Marty Goddard was a force to be reckoned with, and she helped change rape cases forever. Knowing how things are run now (which could still use some work) and how things used to be was unsettling. Grateful for these female pioneers who used whatever method they needed to help victims and to change the perception of rape overall.

Trigger warnings include rape, abuse, and alcoholism.

This is a difficult subject that needed a book like this. It is beyond belief that the first rape kit was not available until the early 70's. Women were treated with indignity after a life changing, horrific event. Once can see why some go unreported.
There are still problems today. The backlog is shameful, and there has to be a way to clear these, and likely bring about justice.

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor publishing for a digital copy of this ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Secret History of the Rape Kit is that, but it is more, to the extent that the title feels limiting. It discusses the origins of the forensic tool for sexual assaults that we colloquially call the rape kit, originally the Vitullo kit, now by a variety of names. It also is a survivor's statement in itself, the biography of Marty Goddard who at least deserves shared credit with Vitullo in its creation, a consideration of the sociological implications of technology, a survey of modern developments in sexual assault forensics, and a consideration of modern and historical views on sexual assault.

I am intentionally avoiding telling too much of the underlying story here as a rhetorical maneuver: a man doing that is sort of the gravamen of the book's complaint in the first place. I also am going to avoid picking the book apart into its components to review each, which explicates my criticism there in and of itself. It concludes strongly, but at points it feels more like an essay collection than a unified history.

The book offers a lot of information on the process of its writing, which adds to its quality and effect. Naturally, I wanted more writing on the sociological function of technology, particularly as it relates to gender. As the book notes, what is so interesting about the rape kit is not the technological function (remember, this predates the forensic use of DNA), but technology as process meant to shape the treatment of alleged sexual assault.

There was good information on the development of kit through time after its creation, including contemporary plans to make it more accessible and equitable, but I wanted a more rounded discussion there. The complaints there were dismissed too contemptuously, buried in a footnote. I can imagine the criminal justice concerns with some of the newer ideas, acknowledging that some of those are biased or non-serious, and thought it deserved a proper vetting.

The book leans too much on the destiny of biography, stacking supposition on inference to create a narrative (I think specifically of the miniatures here) and I did not like the treatment of Goddard's mental health. I have an advanced copy, but I hope that there are some further edits: there is some repetition of facts at points that I do not feel is intentional, and a few idiosyncratic descriptions of Chicago.

The history here is one that is important for you to read and understand, and the author presents it in a straightforward, occasional brutal, always informative way. Really, the problem here is the one central to the author's own story: the people who need to read this the most seem the least likely to.

My thanks to the author, Pagan Kennedy, for writing the book and to the publisher, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, for making the ARC available to me.

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor publishing for this advanced reader's copy. This was a fascinating book about the true woman behind the rape kit. It is extremely upsetting (but ultimately, not unbelievable) that it took until 1971 and a woman to deliver us the first rape kit. Marty Goddard was working at a crisis hotline and could not take it anymore, listening to survivor after survivor's story and hearing the same thing. She had to do something to stop these predators. Police would bungle cases if women came in to report a rape, assume it was a robbery instead, and make the women return home in hospital gowns and slippers. No wonder no women wanted to report anything if they weren't going to handled or taken seriously. Praise this woman for seeing a serious wrong and creating a path for these survivors to try to get justice.