Content warning: this article contains descriptions of sexual assault and rape
On a busy crossroads, atop of one of Bristol’s steepest streets, students fray their baggy jeans on the ground, pulling their woollen hats lower against the biting wind. Amidst all the grey, an orange paddling pool sits on the ground, flagged by a group of cheery leaflet-wielders, clad in neon orange hoodies. The paddling pool is filled with white, plastic packages with the word enough stamped on the side. They could be ice-creams or mini chocolate bars. Something to lure in students, so the volunteers can talk to them about their society, or careers day. But that’s not what’s happening here.
I hope no one ever has to tear open one of these packages, that out of the 7000 handed out to date, none are used. The knot in my stomach, as I watch them being pressed into student’s hands, tells me that this is not realistic thinking. That’s my own hopeless dreaming, searching for another, less dark world.
Each package contains one at-home DNA testing kit. In the wake of a rape or sexual assault, you can swab yourself and send this off, later receiving the results: tangible evidence that someone else’s DNA has been found on your body. Ella, who is 21 years old, tells me that, in her all girls flat, they have them lined up on the mantlepiece. “That way, if someone brings a guy back and he saw them, it might act as a deterrent, it might show him he has to ask for consent,” she says, pulling her vintage Missoni scarf tight around her. “Every single woman I know has experienced some sort of sexual assault, or rape. Having these kits in the house makes me feel safer.”
This is one of the three ways co-founder of non-profit enough Katie White hopes the kits will be used. “This is what survivors want”, she tells me, over lunch, after I spend the morning with her and her team handing out the kits outside Senate House, during ‘rush hour’ for students as they dart to-and-from lectures. The kits can also be ordered online, for free if you’re based in Bristol, or for £20 if you’re not, and the team have 30 safe spaces around the city, mostly student pubs, where, if you go up to the bar staff and ask for a “hot orange,” the staff will hand one over, no questions asked. Bristol university are not associated, and do not endorse the scheme.
The kits themselves are simple, easy-to-use swabs which detect DNA on the body, and are to be used after someone has experienced sexual assault or rape. The swab is then sent off to a lab, and the results are sent back to the victim as well as being stored, on site, for 20 years. There is also an option, on the enough website, whether used with or without a kit, for survivors to write down – anonymously – what happened to them. There is a further option to write something that will then be shared publicly, on the website and social media. “This is a simple and discreet way of confirming something bad has happened to you, which is an essential step in recovery from trauma,” White explains.
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However, the ideal outcome would be that the kits never get used and – as Ella and her housemates hope – serve instead as a deterrent and visible reminder that rape and sexual assault comes with consequences, for the perpetrator and the perpetrator alone. “Their presence on campus is well known, [perpetrators] will be aware that [if they act] their DNA will be on file somewhere. That’s very scary thought for most students,” says White.
Later in the evening, we stand at another crossroads. This time in Clifton, as a stream of students bowl their way down the hill, heading to the pub, often clad in half-hearted fancy dress or fleeces proudly displaying what society they’re a part of. “Excuse me, have you heard of enough?” the volunteers chorus. The majority have, and those who haven’t tend to stop to hear about it, lured in by the promise of a free orange wristband.
“My missus has had some horrendous experiences, so this is brilliant, just brilliant what you’re doing,” says one lad, as his friend sways beside him, beer in hand. While another group of men, clad in shirts and ties (the classic sports group on a night out uniform) show off the bands already firmly on their wrists. A group of girls, each in a different colour wig, tell us it’s their friend’s 19th birthday. When I ask them how they feel, now they each have a kit in their tote bags, one tells me: “I feel liberated, like I’m able to speak my truth now.”
Adam, a passionate politics student clad in an orange wig and Doc Martens tells me he’s been volunteering once or twice a week for the past few months. “People are fed up of inaction of those in power,” he says. “Most students when they experience sexual assault don’t report it, I experienced sexual violence and I didn’t report it. It just wasn’t an option I wanted to take. This is a good alternative to that. It’s something, in theory, I wish I’d had.”
Every single student I meet, and speak to, during my day spent with enough is enthusiastic about the scheme. The enough team seem to hold a certain cache on campus, it’s cool to be seen with an orange band, it’s cool to be a part of something that loudly and brightly says rape and sexual assault will not be tolerated.
However, the attitude from the students towards the kits, and those who work within the field, is vastly different. I struggled to find anyone who worked in VAWG sector who did not have concerns regarding the kits. Lawyers fear the evidence from the kits would not be admissible in court and give victims “false hope.” A position statement, from the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, issued in September last year concluded that while they “applaud any organisation that is interested in reducing sexual violence and addressing its aftermath” they could not advocate the use of self-swabbing kits due to the swabs not providing reliable evidence that could be used in criminal proceedings, and, that if survivors self-swab instead of interacting with services such as the police or the NHS they miss out on vital help, both psychologically and forensically (if the survivors then chose to take the case further.)
These are, of course, valid concerns. But, ever since starting to work on this story, the alarm going off in my head has been the need for the kits at all. The enough team’s ‘solution’ has definitely attracted its critics but what they’re doing is a reaction, a reaction to a current situation that has escalated this point. Much of the focus of the press surrounding the kits so far has been on whether the kits will hold up in court, but shouldn’t we be more concerned with the fact that most rape cases will not reach the courts at all? How did we reach the point that these kits have to be handed out in the first place? Where students take them, and have them lined up in their living rooms, because it makes them feel safer?
The latest statistics show that, in one year, 1.1 million adults were victims of sexual assault (in the year ending March 2022) according to the crime survey for England and Wales. That same survey found that a higher proportion of adults aged 16 to 24 were victims of sexual assault, than those aged 25 and over. And, a higher proportion of full-time students were victims of sexual assault than any other occupation. Five in six women who are raped, do not report what happened to them to the police. As for convictions? Fewer than 3 in 100 of the rapes recorded by police between 1st October 2023 and 30th September 2024 resulted in someone being charged that same year, let alone convicted. The number of rape victims pulling out of prosecutions before trial has more than doubled in five years. The court backlog for adult rape cases stands at a record high, with 3,656 people awaiting trial in June 2024, more than five times the number in 2019. I could go on, keep pulling out the statistics, painting this morbid picture. It makes me want to scream, to run out into the streets and thrust this reality into people’s hands, urge them to please, please, listen, as something needs to change.
But, isn’t that, essentially, what White and her team have been doing the past few months? When the team first set up enough and began handing out the kits in October last year, no one had heard of them and the team had a lot of explaining to do. They targeted various events and societies, arranging fun runs and went out day and night to spread the word. Today? I’d say the majority of people I encounter when I’m out with the team are aware of them, and the work that they do. “Everyone on campus knows who they are,” explains David, who alongside his friends Lily and Skye chatted to me around the paddling pool. “It’s much more effective than the posters around campus saying ‘don’t get a creep’ or whatever. They’re consistently here, giving out these kits, and that’s really powerful. It’s such a visual way of highlighting the problem.”
“The government has pledged to reduce violence against women and girls by half, and they said that to do that, we have to have radical ideas to make that happen,” White says, adding that enough spent a year developing the idea, speaking to survivors, the police, psychologists and lawyers. “This is a radical idea and we are being met with resistance perhaps because we are challenging the belief that this problem can only be solved via criminal justice. Our approach uses social deterrence.”
"Rape culture can be treated as an afterthought at [some] universities, and we know that sexual assault is, sadly, a very common university experience," says Eliza Hatch, founder of cheerupluv, a community platform that educates on misogyny and sexism. "There's a clear need for more reporting, aftercare and support services which are widely accessible and which validate survivors experiences, so I definitely support this arm of enough's campaign. However, I do share the concerns about the self-swabbing kits. They might, in some cases, empower the individual, but it could put the onus on them to go through the process alone, and potentially unsupported. I worry that the more that goes unreported to official channels, the less clear picture of the true scale of violence against women the authorities will have, meaning the less resources we will have to tackle the problem."
While Rape Crisis' CEO, Ciara Bergman added: "Rape, sexual abuse and sexual harassment are devastatingly common experiences across the life course for women and girls of all ages, and university is no exception; students and young people say that it’s so common on campus (and off) as to be seen as ‘normal’," she says. "We agree that nobody wants their life or education disrupted by rape, and there is no doubt that the justice system - and wider society - are failing people of all ages who are subjected to it. But it is not always the case that doing something is better than doing nothing, especially where the welfare of survivors is concerned.
We support approaches to sexual violence which empower survivors and support them to recover from their experiences - this is hugely important. But it is rapists who must change their behaviour when it comes to stopping sexual violence, not victims. Women already pay too high a price for the violence and abuse they're subjected to - they shouldn't also have to pay for interventions which may not provide them with the evidence or support that they need in the aftermath of an assault."
White insists that the kits are not designed as a replacement for going to the police, or going to a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (where a victim can access medical help for any injuries, pregnancy and STI tests and get a forensic medical evaluation. A victim does not have to report to the police to visit a SARC but they can store evidence for the future. They can also be referred for counselling services). Enough are there, instead, for those who, for a number of reasons, choose, in the wake of an assault, to do nothing at all. When you visit enough’s website and click on report, it says in bold type: “reporting helps validate what happened so you can begin to move forwards. If you want to go to the police or a SARC now, you should go there first. You can come back here after.”
When I reached out to Avon and Somerset Police (who serve the Bristol area) Detective Chief Inspector Rich Marsh commented: “We understand that victim-survivors of sexual offences may wish to provide samples in surroundings that are familiar to them, but we remain concerned that self-swabbing kits may introduce evidential challenges during any criminal prosecution that follows, and we cannot support this initiative at this time. Without following agreed procedures, the value of capturing any DNA sample may be compromised.” He also urged anyone looking for support to contact their local SARC. “We know that there is still a long way to go to improve confidence in victim-survivors reporting to the police. The SARC are able to capture and store evidential samples while you make your decision in your own time.
“Our specialist sexual offences investigation team, Operation Bluestone, launched in 2021 to transform the way we investigate these extremely serious crimes. Our specially trained officers use an approach which focuses on the suspect's behaviour and recognises the trauma which these offences can cause, putting the victim-survivor's needs at the centre of their decision making. We cannot promise every case will lead to a conviction, but what we can promise is we will do our utmost to get you the justice you deserve.”
During her research, speaking to survivors, White discovered that, while every account was different, similar threads ran through them all as to how victims felt in the wake of an attack, and why they didn’t report. “One girl told me that she lives in a house of five girls, and three out of the five of them have been raped,” she says. “None of them wanted to go down any of the existing routes.” A lack of trust in the police loomed large (a 2024 survey, found that 73% of survivors reported worsened mental health due to the actions of police) but so did false ideas of what classifies a rape, and who rapists are. Rape myths rang loudly in their minds, often pushing them into a position of shame and silence. “I wish it had been in a conventional way – violent, a stranger… Then I would have openly been a mess and have a reason to be,” one survivor told White, while many struggled with their attacker being on campus, and often, part of their friendship group.
“There were people I spoke to that told me that they didn’t have confidence in themselves that what had happened, had actually happened to them,” adds White. “But that’s what we’re changing as well. The kit starts conversations, helps people recognise the signs and understand the reality of rape. This means they are better able to deal with it and respond, should the unthinkable happen.” Since the programme’s launch, enough have received nine kits to their DNA lab, including one arriving at the lab the day I spend with the team. “Someone said to me, I wish I had this kit so that on the darkest days, when I was even doubting myself, I could look at the results and gain some confidence from them.”
In January last year, The Crown Prosecution Service released the findings on its research on public understanding of rape. The survey discovered that rape myths and stereotypes are still deeply rooted in society, and, that many of these are still held by young people. Only half of 18-24 year olds recognised that it can still be rape if a victim doesn’t resist, or fight back and less than half recognised that victims may not immediately report to the police. A study, examining sexual violence by male UK students, one of the first of its kind, surveyed 554 male students (from across the UK) and found that 63 had committed 251 sexual assaults, rapes and other coercive and unwanted incidents in the past two years. The study identified a strong association between toxic masculinity and sexual violence, with those who reported committing offences also admitting to believing misogynistic views such as thinking that women who get drunk are to blame if they get raped.
Watching the team hand out the kits, it’s an even mix of the genders coming up and engaging with the team. “Until now, it’s been difficult to be a boy and talk about this topic,” White says. “It happens to men too [government statistics show that 275,000 men were victims in the year ending 2022, but only one in five men will report an attack] but also it helps open up the conversation around consent, and what women experience, for them to have with each other. But I think the most important thing on this is that the kit gives men an opportunity to show their allyship among their friends.”
On enough’s Instagram page, currently sitting at 17,000 followers, there’s a range of information including Reels from counselling psychologist Dr Maisie Johnstone on topics such as to how trauma impacts the nervous system to lesser known trauma responses. These are also available, in their longer form, on the enough website. They also share, with permission, anonymous stories submitted to their website, of real people’s stories – many of which help dispel rape myths, particularly highlighting that, more often than not victims know their rapists. Eight out of ten rapes are committed by someone known to the victim, and one in three adult survivors of rape experience it in their own home.
The power of social media is something that White says is key to their campaign. “We had 10 million views of our content in 12 weeks, that’s all messages of empowerment and solidarity and deterrence. The critics try to reduce us down to just DIY kits, but we’re a whole campaign, which is changing the conversation on campus. We have to be in the places students are, talking directly to them, if we want to solve this.”
As part of enough’s outreach, White, early on gave a talk to Bristol university’s rugby club. What she said stuck with their captain, Cam, 22 who is currently studying for his masters in physics. “After the talk a lot of the lads were really shocked. It was like ‘wow this is such a problem that there’s a need for this.’ I knew we had to get behind and support [enough]. Sexual assault needs to be stopped at the root, and you hear rugby clubs back in the day had a culture that was pretty much in the bin when it comes to that stuff. But in my time at uni, I’ve definitely seen a huge shift, where if you see a younger lad doing something you need to step in and stop it. It’s not men vs women, it’s all of us versus sexual assault.”
As publicity (and controversy) surrounding the kits grows, with lawyers speaking out about how the DNA evidence may not be admissible in court, White fears that this could, in turn, stop the kits being a deterrent. She wants perpetrators to keep being afraid of their DNA being on file in the hope that will stop them from acting. She tells me how she wishes she could work with the police, legal teams and charities for a more holistic approach. “I want [lawyers and those within criminal justice] to look outside their own box and see that their system isn’t the only way, [but also] recognise the failing of that system,” she says. “Survivors have said to me that their generation is so disillusioned with the police and legal systems. We need to create a system that works for survivors, it’s up to society to find that and create that.”
I absolutely agree with White on that one. But, at the same time, when doing so, we need to tread carefully. Rape and sexual assault are incredibly nuanced, and delicate issues. Survivors are vulnerable and they need careful, considered support from well-trained professionals and while enough's kits aren't trying to replace what a survivor could receive from a SARC, they are still there, sitting in the bedroom drawers of women all over campus. Yes, this could act as a deterrent to perpetrators, but to survivors it could also feel like their only option. This isn't the case. There are so many charities and trained professionals, beyond the police, who can help. We absolutely should shout about all that's not working with the current system, but, by doing so, we also run the risk of forgetting that there are so many caring people who can, and will, help us process our trauma. That we don't have to do that alone.
Emblazoned across the leaflet’s that enough hand out are the words – “together we can end rape”. Almost every volunteer that I spoke to, giving up hours of their week to stand outside, in the cold and talk about the harsh realities of sexual assault with strangers, had said they were motivated by it.
Reading those words, I simply thought wishful thinking. I don’t like thinking this way. When did I give up hope that change could actually happen? Perhaps, aged 19, when I reported a sexual assault to the police and the officer flirted with me, before telling me there was “no chance” of catching the guy. Or, when I stayed late at a self-defence class, lessons I’d signed up for to feel safer, and the instructor forcefully placed my hand on his penis. Or, most likely, when, through 15 years of reporting on women’s rights and talking to friends, I realised that ‘only’ having these two experiences classed me as one of the ‘lucky’ ones. In one of the most recent stories I’ve worked on in this area, we found that perpetrators are now successfully using the law to sue, and silence, their victims, at a time when the conviction rates for rape have reached an all-time low.
There are many, many reasons to become jaded, to think that this is the system we’ve got, and it’s fucked but it’s all we have. Therefore, we must remain loyal to it at all costs. But I don’t think it’s working anymore. We have to find new ways - not to push out the old ways, but work alongside them.
My concern is that the kits, and the controversy surrounding them, run the risk of overshadowing enough's mission. I wonder whether they're hindering, more than helping, the ultimate goal. That the money being poured into them (White's co-founder is Tom Allchurch, who helped to build Amazon and Hello Fresh) could be spent more wisely, elsewhere.
But, leaving Bristol, it was the students who I met (those who worked with enough, and those who engaged with them) that stuck with me, and made me feel brighter. They hold a true belief that this world - with its rape myths and low convictions - isn't just set the way it is set. They aren't just hoping for change, but believe it can actually happen.
Rape Crisis, England and Wales, 24/7 Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Line is open 24 hours a day. Call free on 0808 500 222. If you're in Scotland, reach out to Rape Crisis Scotland on 08088 01 03 02 and Rape Crisis Northern Ireland can be reached on 0800 0246 991
Follow Catriona Innes, Cosmopolitan's Commissioning Director, on Instagram and Substack.
Catriona Innes is Cosmopolitan UK’s multiple award-winning Commissioning Editor, who has won BSME awards both for her longform investigative journalism as well as for leading the Cosmopolitan features department. Alongside commissioning and editing the features section, both online and in print, Catriona regularly writes her own hard-hitting investigations spending months researching some of the most pressing issues affecting young women today.
She has spent time undercover with specialist police forces, domestic abuse social workers and even Playboy Bunnies to create articles that take readers to the heart of the story. Catriona is also a published author, poet and volunteers with a number of organisations that directly help the homeless community of London. She’s often found challenging her weak ankles in towering heels through the streets of Soho. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
