When Sarah awoke * Heinrich, she lay in a strange apartment, next to a strange man. She wanted to get up, but he held her tight. He kissed her against her will, threw her onto the bed. Then he raped her. So she later told the police.
A few hours later Heinrichs went to a hospital. She told the doctors about a burning sensation in the vaginal area. The doctors asked for their underwear and took smears from Heinrich's vagina.
After that, the woman wanted to forget the incident. But she did not succeed: over and over again, her thoughts caught up with her. Ten days later, she found the power to report to the police. Relatives had encouraged her.
Victims of sexual violence in many cases do not want to report immediately, disclose their personal details and talk to police officers about the incident. Therefore, they can be sent to a hospital, blood or urine, deposit their underwear and describe the incident. The doctors take everything confidentially. Thus, victims can also report years later, because the tracks are secured - court-proof. That's the promise of Anonymous Forensics, short ASS.
What happens in practice?
Christian Müller wanted to know what remains of the promise in practice. He is a police officer in Krefeld, he has written his master's thesis at the German University of Police in Münster about the procedure. He is not aware of any other study that documented the outcome of cases. In his work he describes the cases in anonymous form, also that of Sarah Heinrichs. The basis for this are the investigation files of the public prosecutor's offices.
Müller counted 464 cases Anonymous forensics from the years 2011 to 2016 in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 43 cases, there was an ad in which Müller was able to see the files. 20 procedures were completed. Only in one case was there a conviction. It was about child abuse, the perpetrator was confessed. The ASA had revealed no evidence of a sexual offense. "The proof that the tracks are court-proof, has yet to be provided," says Müller.
The other methods evaluated by Müller were discontinued, including that of Sarah Heinrichs. Her memory gaps were too big - she only knew that she had drunk a beer and left it open. Afterwards: A gap that ends only with the waking up in the apartment. No offender could be determined. Even in the hospital secured tracks did not bring the investigators.
That it does not come to the process in many cases, is mainly due to the circumstances. The alleged victims, almost always are women, had often consumed alcohol or drugs, often suspected that someone had secretly given them co-drops - with Sarah Heinrichs is close. Many women could not remember what was happening, their statements were useless for the prosecutor.
word agains word
In addition, there is a basic problem with sexual offenses: Except the alleged victim and the suspect can rarely give information, it is usually statement against statement. Even DNA traces prove in doubt only that those involved had intercourse, but do not prove any rape. Not even 10 percent of rape and severe sexual assault procedures ended in 2014 with a conviction.
Müller's work also shows how different doctors handle the ASD. They have an important role to play: after all, it is medical professionals who are supposed to safeguard the footsteps that will endure in the event of a possible court case.
Unified standards have not been established in practice, according to the study: in one case, the hospital's report was one page long, in other cases doctors filled in multi-page sample forms. Sometimes blood was taken, sometimes not. In some cases, doctors gave their clothes, not others. Photos of injuries were not always made, and only in one case were the images provided with a sticker that could later be assigned to the suspected victim.
"It depends on chance"
Stefanie Ritz-Timme does not surprise that. She heads the Legal Medical Institute in Düsseldorf and has written with a colleague on behalf of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, what a finding must be, so that he can withstand criminal proceedings. "It depends on chance that the doctor knows what a court-proofed documentary is," she says. Many physicians did not learn this during their studies and are therefore overwhelmed when dealing with victims of violence.
The scientist calls for the topic to be made mandatory for all doctors. But there is great competition for the contents of medical studies, and court-proofed documentation is not the top priority. For this reason, she and her colleagues have launched the project "Violence-Victims-Evidence-Backing Information System", or "iGobsis" for short. Doctors can read on the website hints to court-proof documentation or can be guided step by step through the procedure.
The NRW state government wants to expand the ASS. The Ministry of Equality has issued the goal of a nationwide offer. The policeman Müller also considers the ASS contact point important. "Anonymous forensics gives victims time to stabilize emotionally," he says.
According to an overview of the women's rights organization Terre des Femmes, there are in each state except Thuringia clinics and violent protection ambulances that record traces confidentially. Vanessa Bell, adviser for sexual violence in the organization, praises the offer as an important building block in the fight against sexual violence. Many procedures failed for lack of evidence.
*Pseudonym