Abstract
Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholarship has increasingly focused on the rape kit, with scholars critiquing the gendered biases that are enacted through the medico-legal exam and how the kit itself serves as a technoscientific witness of rape. However, little scholarship has focused on the discourses surrounding the early US Vitullo® Kit. This article traces the stabilization of the kit from 1973 to 1987, attending to how community advocates embraced technoscientific protocols to intervene in medico-legal evidence collection. I bring insights from criminology in conversation with STS, to examine archival records associated with the Vitullo® Kit. I argue the kit emerged as a strategic feminist and positivist criminological intervention, in which discourses about the perceived reliability and objectivity of protocol technoscience were believed to counter gendered stereotypes embedded in the justice system. This project, sheds new light on the neglected contributions of community advocates in developing this kit.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.