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Has Rape Reporting Increased Over Time?
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NIJ
Journal No. 254 • July 2006
Has Rape Reporting Increased Over Time?
by Lauren R. Taylor
About the Author
Lauren R. Taylor is a freelance writer.
During the past three decades, women have become more likely
to report rapes and attempted rapesparticularly those
involving known assailantsto police. Reporting by
others, such as friends and family members, has also risen.
Past studies have shown increases in reporting, but they
did not consider changes in the types of incidents occurring
or being reported. “Reporting trends without the detailssuch
as crime completion, presence of a weapon, or victim-offender
relationshipcan be misleading,” researcher Eric
Baumer points out. “Changes in willingness to report
can be confused with changes in the nature of the crimes
themselves.” So Baumer aimed for a more comprehensive
study that considered such details.
He used data from the National Crime Survey (NCS) (19731991)1
and National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) (19922000)2
to find out how reporting has changed over time, who does
the reporting, and the effect of the victim-offender relationship
on the chance a rape will be reported. Baumer’s research
included all incidents involving a female victim and one
or more male offenders (1,609 from 19731991, and 636
from 19922000).
Subjects interviewed in the National Crime Survey were
not asked directly about rape. However, when the survey
was redesigned in 1992 and renamed the National Crime Victimization
Survey, interviewers began asking a series of questions
about “unwanted sexual activity.” The number
of sexual victimizations disclosed to interviewers in the
second survey shot up, and fewer of them had been reported
to police. Because of the survey redesign in 1992, data
from the two periods cannot be compared.
Baumer also compared rape reporting with the reporting
of other kinds of assaults to see whether broader social
changessuch as declining social supports in the wake
of violent crimemay have been associated with the
changes. He found no significant increase in the likelihood
of police notification of other types of assaults, so the
increase was particular to rape.
The Rapist You Know
In the 1970’s and 1980’s, most of the increase
in reporting was not from victims, but from third parties
(friends, family members, or legal advocates). Among victims,
the biggest increase in reporting was in cases where women
had been attacked by people they knew. Historically, such
cases had been much less likely to be reported. As a result
of this large increase, the gap between the reporting of
known-assailant cases and stranger cases narrowed. During
the 1990’s, reporting of rapes committed by known
assailants and strangers increased both among third parties
and victims. By this time, sexual assault was equally likely
to be reported to the police, whether or not the victim
knew the offender, though third parties were still less
likely to report if the assailant was known to the victim.
A Changing World
During the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s,
transformations were taking place in the way Americans defined
and responded to rape. Social and political movementsalong
with changes in the lawencouraged women to inform
police about sex crimes. Academics, victim service providers,
law enforcement officers, and others continue to debate
how these shifts affected perceptions of women, rape, and
sexual behavior. But most important, queried Baumer in his
study, “Did these changes alter behavior?”
Baumer didn’t study the effects of changing attitudes
on reporting, but he believes his research can be used to
assess them indirectly. He suggests that the increases he
found were consistent with changes in law and culture that
removed many of the institutional and social barriers to
reporting.
Reporting increases were greatest among women raped by
acquaintancesespecially well-known acquaintances,
spouses, or ex-spouses. This makes sense, Baumer believes,
given the focus of legal and social reforms on broadening
the definition of rape and reducing obstacles to prosecution
in such cases.
A Hidden Crime?
Although legal, social, and political reforms appear to
have improved the chances that a rape or attempted rape
will be reported to police, most victims still do not report.
Between 1992 and 2000, an average of 31 percent of attempted
and completed rapes were reported.3
That rate increased over the decade, but the fact remains
that less than half of such crimes are reported to police.
Baumer suggests that work be done to identify the policies
or practices that encourage reporting and to apply those
practices elsewhere. Such a strategy might, in turn, increase
the chance of arrest and prosecution and, ultimately, the
deterrent effect of the criminal justice system.
NCJ 214118
For More Information
- Baumer, E., Temporal Variation in the Likelihood of
Police Notification by Victims of Rapes, 1973-2000,
final report submitted to the National Institute of Justice,
Washington, DC: University of Missouri-St. Louis, April
2004 (NCJ 207497), available at www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/207497.pdf.
Notes
- National Crime Surveys: National
Sample of Rape Victims, 19731982, Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
1985 (NCJ 104624); National Crime Surveys: National Sample,
19791987, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1989 (NCJ 130249); National
Crime Surveys: National Sample, 19861992, Washington,
DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
1994 (NCJ 175690).
- National Crime Victimization Survey,
19922000, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2001.
- Reporting Crime to the Police, 19922000,
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of
Justice Statistics, 2003 (NCJ 195710):1, available at
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1142.
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