Why don't more women report sexual assault to the police?

© 2000 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors An estimated 94% of sexual assaults never come to the attention of the criminal justice system. We examined data from the charts of all 958 individuals who were examined at the Sexual Assault Service between Jan. 1, 1993, and Dec. 31, 1997. This service is operated by the Children's & Women's Health Centre of British Columbia in partnership with the Vancouver General Hospital Emergency Department. The purpose of our study was to determine why so many sexual assault cases are not reported to the police. Information on patient demographics, details of the assaults and results of the physical examinations were compiled and analysed. The relationship between police involvement and the circumstances of each case was examined using logistic regression. “Police involvement” was defined as police accompaniment to the BC Women’s Sexual Assault Service, a request by the patient to file a police report at the time of the examination or both. Age was not significantly associated with police involvement. The presence of physical injury, the fact that the assailant was a stranger, socioeconomic status below the group median, the year of the assault and the assault taking place in Vancouver were variables significantly associated with police involvement (Table 1). In addition, the decision to involve police in a sexual assault case was usually made before the individual arrived in the emergency room (Fig. 1). Police involvement in these cases has decreased over time; the percentage of assault cases seen by the sexual assault service that involved the police was 76.7% in 1993, 73.3% in 1994, 66.7% in 1995, 69.9% in 1996 and 57.4% in 1997. Our results suggest that women who have been raped by an assailant who is not a stranger and those who have no physical injuries following a rape are more reluctant to involve the police. The increased probability of police involvement when a woman is sexually assaulted by a stranger or when the victim has some physical injury is consistent with previous studies. This behaviour may reflect a comWhy don’t more women report sexual assault to the police?