Besides being trapped in a major structure fire or a sunken ship, or enduring every parents worst nightmare, the loss of a child, I can't think of anything worse than being physically raped.
I'm probably in good company, so maybe that's why you never seem to see routine coverage of the horrific act in our local media.
But, as a result -- the old "out of sight, out of mind" routine -- we forget that it can happen here. Yes, even in Amherst.
In FY14 twenty two rapes were reported to the Amherst Police Department, up from seventeen in FY13. That number is more than three times the rapes reported to them in FY2005 (seven). The average over the past ten years is twelve.
Those numbers do not include our institutes of higher education.
In 2013 Hampshire College had twenty reported rapes, UMass had twenty two, and Amherst College had nine. Thus adding in the seventeen reported to APD makes a total of 68 for the entire town, out of a population of 38,000 or 1.8/1,000.
Department of Justice statistics show rape reported at rate of 1.3/1,000 nationwide, so we're well over average.
Unfortunately college aged women report rape at a much higher rate than "average": 6.1 per 1,000 female students, but this is slightly lower than the rate reported for college aged females who are not students, 7.6 per 1,000 females.
Since UMass has around 13,000 female students the 22 reported rapes in 2013 are well below the 6.1/1,000 nationwide average (which would have resulted in 79 reported rapes).
This year that just ended, 2014, will be exceedingly better for the state's flagship of higher education. The number of rapes reported to UMPD as of two weeks ago is only (and I hate to use that word) six.
But you probably will not see the UMass Office of News & Media Relations issuing a press release heralding that. Although they probably should.
What's the stat on the reported rapes which end in a conviction for the alleged rapist?
ReplyDeleteI put in a public info request with the DA and I'm still waiting to hear back.
ReplyDeleteThen of course one has to wonder how many of these reported cases of rape are really rape. Unfortunately statistics don't tell the whole story.
ReplyDeleteThat's one way of looking at it, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteProbably makes you feel better as well.
Not me.
Doesn't make me feel better. Certainly a valid question though. A rape kit may give you an answer to a question but not the answer to a more important question. Take away the feminist propaganda and statistics show upward of 40% of rape accusations are false.
ReplyDeleteEven if that were true, it still remains that rapes reported to the Amherst police have more than doubled over the past ten years.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the first question about conviction stats, Harriman (The Telegraph-UK) says government reports of a 6% conviction rate is false. She reports that the figure is closer to 60%.
ReplyDeleteReported rape increases over time do not necessarily mean more rapes. A number of studies over the years have shown that social and political movements, along with changes in the law, encouraged people to inform police about sex crimes. And while legal, social, and political reforms appear to have improved the chances that a rape or attempted rape will be reported to police, the fact is most victims still do not report rape, so simply looking at a number does not prove nor disprove anything.
ReplyDeleteAnd with that attitude/excuse, nothing gets done about it.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely nothing.
Nor is anything done about the hoaxes. There never was a Campus pond Rapist -- and how much did that hoax and hysteria cost?
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's the fraudulent Rolling Stone story.
DeleteIt is only a matter of time until there will be so many no-rape-rapes alleged that we will be back to not taking the real victims seriously again....
ReplyDelete