As abstracted by BJS, it "presents information on the consequences of rape and sexual assault for female victims. The study provides the percentages of completed rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault of females that were reported to the police in 1992-2000. The report provides the percentage of victims that were injured and treated from a completed rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. It presents the percentage of those who reported to the police, and the percentage of those victims who received treatment and whose victimization was reported to the police. " It smmarizes how the relationship between victim and perpetrator (e.g. current or former husband or boyfriend, friend, acquaintance, stranger) correlates with the likelihood of reporting.
Highlights for the years 1992-2000 include the following:
Female victims accounted for 94% of all completed rapes, 91% of all attempted rapes, and 89% of all completed and attempted sexual assaults. [p.1]
- Victims were injured in 100% of the rapes, 39% of attempted rapes and 17% of sexual assaults against females. [p.1]
- Medical treatment was received by 45% of injured female victims of a reported attempted rape and 22% of injured victims of an unreported attempted rape. [p.1]
- "When a rape or sexual assault was reported to the police, the victim was the most likely to report it." [p.1] When choosing not to report a victimization to law enforcement authorities, the most commonly cited reason was that the victimization was a personal matter. Other less common reasons for not reporting a victimization were cited as fear of reprisal, police bias, and to protect the offender.[p.3]
- "The closer the relationship between the female victim and the offender, the greater the likelihood that the police would not be told about the rape or sexual assault....When the offender was a current or former husband or boyfriend, about three-fourths of all victimizations were not reported to police....When the offender was a friend or acquaintance, 61% of completed rapes, 71% of attempted rapes, and 82% of sexual assaults were not reported." [p.3]
The data was compiled from the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).
