NCJ Number
77667
Date Published
1981
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This paper presents statistics on sexual assaults reported to Dane County, Wis., police agencies in 1980, along with a discussion of the data's implications for police operations.
Abstract
Of the 290 complaints of sexual assault received by the Dane County police departments, only 20 were declared unfounded. Approximately 68 percent of the complaints were handled by the City of Madison Police Department, 14 percent by the Dane County Sheriff's Department, and the remainder by law enforcement agencies in smaller communities. Persons under 18 years old comprised 36 percent of the victims, while adults were 56 percent. A breakdown of assault victims by age and sex shows that 29 percent were juvenile females and 55 percent were adult females. An analysis of the sexual assault data comments on errors in recordkeeping and the very low percentage of minority race victims who reported sexual assaults to the police. Since 67 percent of all victims knew their assailant, these statistics suggest that sexual assault should be considered as an interpersonal or social problem rather than a purely criminal issue. The commentary commends the Dane County police for increasing the number of arrests for sexual assaults to 1 out of every 2 complaints as compared to the national rate of 1 arrest for every 4 complaints. Following a countywide statistical summary of sexual assaults categorized by age and type of offense, tables provide detailed data.