Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/author/mark-fazlollah/)
New government crime statistics showed the number of rapes dropped by a third last year, from 141,070 in 1999 to 92,440 in 2000. But many women’s advocates and criminologists don’t trust the numbers or the reporting methods.
The Detroit Police Department now admits that its statistics for rape arrests, like those for murder, were off the mark, so high that they skewed national crime statistics. Women’s advocates say the false numbers gave them a false sense of security.
For years, Philadelphia police had been lying about rape, burying or shelving cases to improve crime stats. To counter a crisis of public confidence, the commissioner created the nation’s first women’s review of rape reports. Arrests went up.
Growing evidence indicates that the problem of police departments dismissing and underreporting rapes is widespread. The reasons for the numbers game may range from a desire for the department to appear successful to the belief that women often lie.
A prize-winning reporter writes that police rape statistics in some major cities may be low only because police simply ignore women’s complaints. One city reporting a high number of rapes is also a city with a model program to assist victims.