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In the article Changes in Police Notification for Rape, the researchers, Baumer, Felson,

and Messner, study the number of victims that do not report violent victimizations to the police.

Victims of these crimes sometimes do not seek help from the legal system because they may be

embarrassed by what has happened to them, the fear of a reoccurrences from the offender, and

some believe that the criminal justice system is not effective in responding to and preventing

attacks.

In this study, the researchers determine if rates of police notification of rape have

increased since the 1970s using data from the National Crime Survey (NCS) and from the

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The NCS collected data from 1973 to 1991 while

the NCVS collected data from 1992 to 2000. The authors focused on three areas: Overall rates

reported by the victims, rates involving non-strangers, and whether or not differences in rates

between incidents concerning strangers and non-strangers have reduced over time.

Sometimes a victim is raped by a person they are familiar with and this leads to the rape

being less likely to be reported for multiple reasons. Women who have been raped by someone

they know tend to place blame on themselves rather than the offender. They feel that it is a

possibility that they could have ‘lead on’ the offender. A victim may look for ways not label

themselves as ‘rape victim.’ One will make themselves feel that a rape really did not occur and

will not report the crime. Also, some women feel that others will not see them as a victim of rape

if they knew the perpetrator.

In the 1970s, legal statutes in many states did not have a clear definition of rape. The

crime had to be reported quickly had be backed up by a third party. Also, the victim had to show

that shed physically tried to defend the attack. The victim’s character and past behaviors were
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used by defense attorneys to discredit the victim’s statement as well. This was common among

crimes between non-strangers. The low probability of arrest, prosecution, and conviction in

situations involving rape made reporting the crimes discouraging for victims.

Because of all these factors data collected in the 1970s showed that police notifications

made by rape victims were extremely low. Rates involving situations between non-strangers

were even less likely to be reported. Since the 1970s, a vast number of legal, political, and

cultural reforms have been initiated to reduce the difficulty for rape victims to report their

incidents to the police.

An anti-rape reform movement emerged in the 1970s to increase the public’s awareness

of rape as a severe problem that was committed by both civilians and inmates and to lobby for

modification of rape laws that were looked at as out dated and unmerited. The number of rape

crisis centers made a drastic increase from the 1970s to the 1990s. Over 1100 centers were

established in this era. In these centers legal advocates were available to assist victims in

reporting rapes to law enforcement and help the victims through the rest of the legal processes.

The process of police notification that was once so unbearable for victims had become more

manageable.

Results from the investigators’ study show that slightly more than one-half of the rapes

reported to the NCS interviewers went unreported to the police from 1973-1991. Two-thirds of

those were reported directly by the victim. The results from the 1992-2000 NCVS show that

rates of police notice are lower compared to the improvised NCVS. Less than one-third of the

rapes in the sample from NCVS were reported to the police, with two-thirds of the recorded

crimes reported directly to the police by the victims.

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From their study Baumer and his fellow researchers conclude that overall rates of

reporting incidents of rape to the police have increased since the early 1970s. The change from

the 1970s to the 1980s was due to changes in third-party reporting and changes in victim

reporting of non-stranger rapes. This is more than likely thanks to the increased attention to rape

through use of the media and social campaigns that launched during this era. During the 1990s

there was a significant increase in the reporting of rapes by both the third-party as well as

victims. The reporting rates for incidents involving strangers and non-strangers declined from

1970 to 1980 and by the 1990s there was no distinct difference.

Still today rape is a problem in the United States as well as other countries, and many

times rape does go unreported due to the fear and embarrassment a victim may have. This study

shows how increase efforts to help rape victims through their tragic situations has in time made a

direct increase to the number of both stranger and non-stranger rapes that have been reported. If

progress continues soon rape victims will soon be able to endure no fear, pain, and humility

when reporting rape to law enforcement