The Secret History of the Rape Kit The Secret History of the Rape Kit

The Secret History of the Rape Kit

A True Crime Story

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    • Expected 14 Jan 2025
    • $17.99
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    • $17.99

Publisher Description

Marty Goddard dreamed up a new crime-solving tool—a kit that could help rape survivors fight for justice. This thrilling investigation tells the story of the troubled, heroic woman who kicked off a feminist revolution in forensics, and then vanished into obscurity.

In 1972, Martha "Marty" Goddard volunteered at a crisis hotline, listening to girls sob with shame. The girls had been molested by their fathers, their teachers, their uncles. Soon, Marty was on a mission to answer a question: Why were so many sexual predators getting away with these crimes? By the end of the decade, she had launched a campaign pushing hospitals and police departments to collect evidence of sexual assault and treat survivors with dignity. She designed a new kind of forensics tool--the rape kit--and new practices around evidence collection that spread across the country. Yet even as Marty fought for women's rights, she allowed a man to take credit for her invention.
    When journalist Pagan Kennedy went looking for this forgotten pioneer, she discovered that even Marty Goddard's closest friends had lost track of her. As Pagan followed a trail of clues to solve the mystery of Marty, she also delved into the problematic history of forensics in America. The Secret History of the Rape Kit chronicles one journalist's mission to understand a crucial innovation in forensics and the woman who championed it. As Pagan Kennedy hunts for answers, she reflects on her own experiences with sexual assualt and her own desire for justice.

GENRE
Non-Fiction
AVAILABLE
2025
14 January
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
256
Pages
PUBLISHER
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
SELLER
Random House, LLC

More Books by Pagan Kennedy

Inventology Inventology
2016
'Zine 'Zine
2014
The First Man-Made Man The First Man-Made Man
2008
The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories
2008
Pagan Kennedy's Living Pagan Kennedy's Living
2016
Black Livingstone Black Livingstone
2013