Katie White founded Enough two years ago, distributing self-swabbing rape kits for people who believe they have been sexually assaulted.
The DIY kits allow users to collect DNA at home and send it to a private lab for analysis.
White was responding to stark facts about sexual violence in England and Wales: of over 70,000 rapes reported to police in 2021-22, only 2,223 led to charges.
Moreover, 83% of survivors do not report to the police at all.
Sixteen- to 35-year-olds are the most common targets, and full-time students face higher rates of sexual assault than any other occupation.
White concluded that very few student rapists are brought to justice.
White says the kits give women an option to gather evidence at home before deciding whether to visit a sexual assault referral centre (SARC) or contact the police.
She reports positive reception when handing out kits on campuses.
However, victim support groups and rape charities have strongly criticized self-swabbing. They worry it may be seen as an alternative to SARCs, which offer counselling and other support.
The National Police Chiefs Council warned the kits could reduce trust in statutory services, and evidence collected outside regulated environments may not be admissible in court.
These criticisms are valid, but they ignore why survivors avoid official channels. Many see a gruelling process that dominates their lives with a minuscule chance of conviction.
Former victims' commissioner Vera Baird said six years ago that rape had been effectively decriminalised.
A startup offering a workaround is a sign of the problem, not the problem itself.
Enough's online materials were reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) by Martin Narey, former head of Prisons and Probation.
He objected to the statement “430,000 rapes happen a year,” calling it scaremongering.
The ASA ruled against Enough, questioning its methodology. But exact numbers are impossible when so few rapes are reported.
The Office for National Statistics estimates about 900,000 sexual assaults and attempts on women (including rape) in the year to March 2025.
Accusing Enough of scaremongering seems irrational when government statistics are terrifyingly high.
The inefficiencies of the criminal justice system have eroded faith in the state's ability to deliver justice.
White's guerrilla move may reflect dwindling trust, and that might be why it upsets so many people.
Maintaining a “zero tolerance” culture while tolerating nearly a million sexual assaults a year requires the fantasy that sexual violence isn't real.
This is why women don't report and don't access formal services.
The promise is to believe the victim, but many still prefer to believe the rapist: a fifth of men and a quarter of Conservative voters think women routinely fabricate rape allegations.
Classic feminist accounts say women are seen as less credible, but a significant minority of victims are men, and they are believed even less.
Studies show rape myths persist more strongly when the victim is male.
It is psychologically easier to think a mistake has been made than to live in a world where people wilfully violate others' autonomy.
When evidence is irrefutable, people distance rapists from their own circles, as philosopher Manon Garcia observed during the Gisèle Pelicot trial.
The UK's National Crime Agency has since discovered a “truly international” network of drug-facilitated rapists.
Rape is so disturbing that the overwhelming preference is to find another explanation. The more useful work is to start believing that rape itself is real.
