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U.S. Senate Hearings

Posted 9/13/2010 2:51pm

Statement for the Record

“Rape in the United States:  The Chronic Failure to Report and Investigate Sex Crimes”

To:  The Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs

From:  Megan O’Bryan, President & CEO, Cleveland Rape Crisis Center

Imagine that you have just moved to a new city.  Only a few weeks after you have arrived, you are raped.  You feel frightened, ashamed, and alone – in a place that you do not yet even call home.  You go to the police to report the assault and the patrol officer asks you where it took place.  Your stomach turns over and your heart starts pounding.  “I don’t know,” you say.  “I just moved here a few weeks ago.”

The officer informs you that without this information, you cannot make a police report.  Without a police report, the crime cannot be investigated and without an investigation, the offender will walk the same streets that you do.  Around every corner, you will wonder if he is there.  You are devastated.

This was the experience of a woman in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the area that Cleveland Rape Crisis Center serves.  Fortunately, this person was able to work with an advocate at Cleveland Rape Crisis Center who helped her report her rape, ensuring that this crime was at least investigated.  Not every victim of a sexual assault has this opportunity.

A national survey indicates that one out of six women and one out of 33 men will be the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her or his lifetime[1].  Yet, only about 40% of sex crimes are ever reported to police[2]. 

It is frightful to think that more than half of rapists are never even investigated and are sitting in the same coffee shops, walking in the same grocery stores and employed by the same companies as the rest of the law-abiding population.  It is in our public’s best interest to make sure that as many sexual offenses as possible are reported, investigated and prosecuted and that sexual offenders are punished for their life-shattering crimes. 

So, if it is the public’s best interest to ensure sex crimes are reported, why are so many kept quiet?  Because reporting is often not in the best interest of the crime victim, who is often made to feel humiliated, embarrassed and ashamed for something that was never her or his fault in the first place.

The number one reason rape survivors do not report the crime is that they fear they will not be believed, even by the police.   Law enforcement officers often buy into the same misperceptions as the general public.  For example, they mistakenly think that a victim may have been to blame for a crime committed against her.  Or in the instance of the woman who had just moved to a new city, an officer may think that if she didn’t even know the location of the crime, how could her story possibly be true?

Often, sexual assault is a crime that remains in the shadows, both to our legislators and to the general public.  Rape crisis centers across the country are vastly underfunded.  Many statistics about rape are not collected or appear wildly inaccurate because of the way they are reported.  Perhaps most significantly, the lack of understanding and empathy police officers can display reflects the outlook of our society at large – that if a woman is raped, she is somehow to blame, and may not be telling the truth.

If it is in the public best interest to report, investigate and prosecute all sex crimes, it is imperative that when someone reports a sexual assault, an officer responds in an empathetic and non-judgmental manner.  It is vital that the officer indicates that they believe the reporting person and ensures that a report is filed appropriately.  It is also imperative that our criminal justice system does everything it can to fully investigate and prosecute offenders.

As legislators, you can help to change this.  You can work with rape crisis centers to create policies that are well-informed and helpful to victims.  You can require better data collection of law enforcement and other systems.  You can ensure that rape crisis centers are better-funded and rape victims have access to healing, helping services. 

Knowing that every two minutes in the United States, one more person is raped[3], your help cannot come soon enough.

[1] National Institute of Justice & Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey. 1998.

[2] U.S. Department of Justice.2005 National Crime Victimization Study. 2005.

[3] U.S. Department of Justice. 2007 National Crime Victimization Survey. 2007.