NCJ Number
103051
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1986) Pages: 407-415
Date Published
1986
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study examines the effectiveness of a 1983 Canadian law designed to increase victim reports of sexual assault.
Abstract
The new law (Bill C-127) replaces the offenses of rape and indecent assault with the new offense of sexual assault. The law redefines rape from primarily a sexual act to an act of violence. This is an effort to make the reporting, clearing, and charging for sexual assault similar to that for physical assault. Data compiled by Statistics Canada for 1973-82, prior to the new law, were used to establish a trend against which 1983 data could be compared. The number of cases founded, cleared, and charged were converted into percentages of the total number reported, providing a common basis for comparing different offenses. The means and standard deviations of these percentages over the 10 years were computed to produce a confidence interval with which to evaluate 1983 data. The primary comparison was between sexual assaults in 1983 with physical assault and with the past trend for both physical assault and the aggregate total of the past offenses currently defined as sexual assault. Comparisons were made with other offenses against persons to control for any general changes either over the 10 years or in 1983. Despite the small increase in the reporting of sexual assault, the percentage charged remained low by absolute standards for both physical and sexual assault. A gap still exists between both sexual and physical assault and all other offenses against the person. Altering the offense of rape to sexual assault was apparently of little value if both are often viewed as provoked by victims, so that charges are not brought even when the case is cleared. 1 table and 5 references.