Rape Victims and the Police: Reporting Rates and Solution Rates
In order for a crime to be solved and processed by the justice system, it must first be brought to the attention of the police. But during most years, less than half of all rapes are not reported, according to the annual findings from the NCVS. The highest reporting rates were recorded in 2002 and 2003, at 55 percent. The lowest rates, a mere 25 percent or so, were discovered by the NCVS in 1995, 1997,
1999, 2009, and 2011. The reporting rate was 28 percent in 2012 and 35 percent in 2013. In sum, over the years, most of the teenage girls and women who told the NCVS about sexual assaults never informed the police (BJS Victimization Analysis Tool, 2014). Furthermore, no sustained improve- ment toward higher rates of reporting can be dis- cerned from the annual NCVS surveys (refer back to Table 6.1). Despite many public relations cam- paigns to encourage victims to come forward (such as circulating posters and setting up special hotline numbers) and several reforms (such as safeguarding a woman’s privacy by not publicly identifying her and providing intermediaries and advocates at rape crisis centers at hospitals and on college campuses to accompany complainants), the problem of nonre- porting persists.
Girls and women told NCVS interviewers that they did not report sexual assaults to the authorities because of these reasons: They lacked proof that they were violated against their will; they consid- ered the incident to be a private or personal matter not serious enough to bring to court; they are not sure the perpetrator intended to harm them; they are too embarrassed or ashamed to reveal what hap- pened to them; they fear they will be stigmatized because of widely held victim-blaming rape myths; they are afraid of reprisals from the assailant; and they anticipate a “second wound” if they are demeaned, belittled, or entirely disbelieved by peo- ple who are supposed to assist and support them. Some might also believe the violation was partly their fault or feel compromised if they were engaged in wrongdoing, such as underage drinking, drug taking, or prostitution. If they tell anyone, that individual is more likely to be a friend rather than an authority figure, family member, or lover. Many specifically did not want their family or other peo- ple to know about what happened to them (see Fisher, Daigle, and Cullen, 2008; Brody, 2011; and Cohn et al., 2013).
Women who report offenses to the police most often say that they do so to be rescued from an assailant, to prevent the rapist from harming them again or from attacking someone else, and to get him in trouble so that he will be punished.
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Women are more likely to go to the authorities if the perpetrator used a weapon, if they are physically wounded and require medical care for their injuries, if they actively resisted and put up a struggle, and if they were forced to endure a particularly vicious and depraved assault (Dedel, 2011). Surprisingly, whether or not the offender was a complete stranger, an acquaintance, or an intimate does not seem to affect the decision whether to report the crime, according to NCVS findings.
The next question to be answered with the help of data is, “How successful are the police in solving the sexual assaults reported to them?” Rape clearance rates for police departments across the nation show a disturbing decline over the past few decades, accord- ing to the FBI’s UCRs. The percentage of reported rapes that were cleared by an arrest hit an all-time low of 40 percent in 2010 and remained stuck at that unsatisfactory level in 2013 (refer back to Table 6.3). This lack of progress is surprising and disappointing, considering that increasing numbers of easily “solved” acquaintance rape cases (in which the sus- pect’s identity and whereabouts are known) presum- ably are being brought to the attention of the local authorities as the stigma diminishes (see Kanin, 1984; and Estrich, 1986).
When low reporting rates are combined with low solution rates, an even more discouraging sta- tistic emerges. Only about 12 percent of all the sexual assaults and rapes disclosed to the NCVS between 2005 and 2010 resulted in an arrest at the scene of the crime or after a follow-up investi- gation (Planty and Langton, 2013).
To prevent victims from being deterred from pressing charges by the prospect of insensitive han- dling, some police departments have set up sex crimes squads or special victims units staffed with specially trained female detectives. Nearly 90 per- cent of all departments have gone even further and participate in collaborative programs known as sexual assault response teams. These SARTs coordinate the efforts of the detectives, the local prosecutor’s office, nurse examiners who collect forensic evidence, and victim advocates; however, sometimes they don’t work as effectively as they should (PERF, 2012).
Although acquaintance rape cases are easily “solved” because the accused person is known to the accuser, convictions are more difficult to secure than in cases of stranger rapes. Attrition rates for acquaintance rape cases are substantially higher. Victims are more inclined to ask that charges be dropped. Also, prosecutors are less willing to press forward because they fear the jury will find “rea- sonable doubts” about her insistence that she did not consent, and therefore will not convict the defendant (LaFree, 1989; Mansnerus, 1989; and Bachman, 1998). This problem has been documen- ted by detailed data from the FBI’s NIBRS report- ing system, which shows that of the mere 35 percent of all rape cases “solved” by an arrest in 2011, the case was closed and charges were dropped in nearly 15 percent of them because the victim refused to cooperate further; and were dis- missed in about 25 percent of them because prose- cutors declined to press charges (Office for Victims of Crime, 2014b).
More cases could be solved if greater efforts were made to collect and analyze evidence. Foren- sic evidence can corroborate a woman’s claim that sexual intercourse took place and that the assailant injured her during the assault. At some hospitals, specially trained sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE) are ready to accompany victims through- out the evidence-gathering medical procedures that are grueling and invasive processes that can last as long as six hours (see Little, 2001; and Kristof, 2009). Understandably, anger is sure to erupt whenever the public discovers that this painstak- ingly collected biological evidence languishes untested in some storage area of a police station or crime lab (see Box 10.3).