Rape Support Group
If you or someone you know has been the victim of rape, this is the place to find support and get advice. If you want, discuss your experience, share your feelings, and meet others going through a similar situation.
Forcible Rapes Reported To Police Fell 4.3% in 2007
The number of forcible rapes reported to police fell in 2007, according to preliminary statistics from the FBI. The report says that forcible rape reports fell 4.3% last year, substantially more than 1.4% decrease in violent crime overall and double the prior years decrease in rape reports. Furthermore, the number of forcible rapes in metropolitan areas of over 1,000,000 was down 8.0 percent; regionally, the Northeastern and Midwestern states reported decreases of approximately 7.0 percent.
While it is hard to draw conclusions from this report, which counts only rapes reported to police, the Justice Departments more comprehensive National Crime Victimization Survey shows that sexual assault has decreased by two-thirds since 1993, said Scott Berkowitz, president & founder of RAINN. This downward trend indicates that weve made tremendous progress in the fight against sexual violence, and were hopeful that the decline in reports to police reflects an actual decline in rape. Only about four of every ten victims report their rape to police, according to the Justice Department.
Forcible rape, as defined in the FBIs Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, is the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Assaults and attempts to commit rape by force or threat of force are also included; however, statutory rape (without force) and other sex offenses are excluded, as are all offenses against men.
www.rainn.org
www.resurrectionafterrape.org
The number of forcible rapes reported to police fell in 2007, according to preliminary statistics from the FBI. The report says that forcible rape reports fell 4.3% last year, substantially more than 1.4% decrease in violent crime overall and double the prior years decrease in rape reports. Furthermore, the number of forcible rapes in metropolitan areas of over 1,000,000 was down 8.0 percent; regionally, the Northeastern and Midwestern states reported decreases of approximately 7.0 percent.
While it is hard to draw conclusions from this report, which counts only rapes reported to police, the Justice Departments more comprehensive National Crime Victimization Survey shows that sexual assault has decreased by two-thirds since 1993, said Scott Berkowitz, president & founder of RAINN. This downward trend indicates that weve made tremendous progress in the fight against sexual violence, and were hopeful that the decline in reports to police reflects an actual decline in rape. Only about four of every ten victims report their rape to police, according to the Justice Department.
Forcible rape, as defined in the FBIs Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, is the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Assaults and attempts to commit rape by force or threat of force are also included; however, statutory rape (without force) and other sex offenses are excluded, as are all offenses against men.
www.rainn.org
www.resurrectionafterrape.org
It would be encouraging to believe that the rate of rape incidences really is declining, perhaps society generally is starting to get more clued-up? We can only hope so.
So the results really ARE positive: we're able to measure rape more accurately, the rates are falling, and reporting rates are increasing, not declining. This is ESPECIALLY amazing because rape, for the past decade, has been shifting "younger" in its target group (age 13-24 at the top of victims), which is also the group typically least likely to report. So this isn't just a bad problem becoming invisible so it looks better, this really is actual improvement. Until 2000, the Bureau of Justice Statistics tracked rape as the fastest-growing violent crime in America. Using BETTER detection tests, which would normally make numbers on paper go up, we are finding that rape is actually happening less frequently, by about 200,000 fewer rapes a year since 2000!