1. Dunford | 2016
1
Context and Research Questions
Approximately 14 percent to 25 percent of women
in the United States experience some type of
sexual assault in their lifetimes (Dietz et al. 2015,
598). There are myths in society about rape that
include: if a victim1 of a sexual assault did not fight
the offender the individual “wanted it” and if the
victim cooperated with the offender they “wanted
it” as well. Rape and sexual assault victims, unlike
other victims of crimes, face the stigma that is
associated with sexual assault and are burdened
with proving that it was not consensual and was
done through force.
Law enforcement can also hold these same
assumptions while investigating and taking reports.
Law enforcement officers “are less likely to view
victims as being credible when they do not
physically or verbally resist the attack or when they
do not exhibit bruises or symptoms of physical
trauma” (Smith, Wilkes, and Bouffard 2014, 543).
Still, law enforcement are often the initial
individuals the survivor encounters after a sexual
assault if the police are notified. They can be the
first step in holding the offender accountable,
receiving justice, and connecting the survivor with
resources.
This study investigates the reporting behavior of
survivors of sexual assault and whether their action
at the time of the assault influences their reporting
to police. Individuals who cooperated with the
offender are expected to report less often to the
police than victims of general crime because of the
threat of stigma from law enforcement personnel.
1 I will use“victimand “survivor” interchangeablyin this brief. Theterm
“victim”is usedin the dataset but “survivor”is usedby anti-violence
academics and advocates becauseit is based in empowerment.
This research is important because stigma can
potentially prevent a survivor from reporting not
just to law enforcement but disclosing to
healthcare providers, counselors, social workers,
friends, and family. Also, survivors are more likely
to experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) if there are self-blame attributions and
avoidance of coping. If the victim perceives they
are to blame from the law enforcement officer’s
perception,
or if they never reported because of the fear of
not being believed if they did not resist, then they
are more likely to experience PTSD (Dietz et al.
2016).
Findings
Victims of sexual assault are less likely in general
than victims of general crime to report to the
police, 45.6% compared to 53.9%. This relationship
is statistically significant (p value < .01) but is a
weak association (Lambda=.012). However, when
looking at the victims who stated they cooperated
with the offender, 100% of victims of sexual
assault who cooperated with the offender did
NOT report to the police. This is statistically
significant (p-value < .01) and has a strong
relationship (Lambda=.723). This indicates that
there is a very strong relationship between being a
victim of sexual assault who cooperated with their
attacker and did not report to the police. On the
other end, sexual assault victims who resisted the
offender were more likely to report to the police
than victims of general crime. 75.4% of victims of
sexual assault who resisted the offender reported
Stigma Threat in Police Reporting Behavior of Survivors of Sexual
PolicyBrief byAmyDunford April 2016
2. Dunford | 2016
2
to the police compared to 55.1% of victims of
general crime. However, this association is less
strong and has a weak association (Phi= .082).
Implications
Overall, the study shows that victims who
cooperated with the offender do not report to the
police because of stigma threat. The fear that law
enforcement will not believe them because their
lack of resisting suggests they “wanted it” is very
apparent from the data above. In comparison,
victims of non-sexually violent crimes reported at
higher levels if they cooperated. Society would
never ask someone who was a victim of a crime to
bear the burden of legitimizing their victimhood by
proving they fought back, why should we ask
victims of sexual assault to do the same? This has
vast consequences for victims of sexual assault.
“Stigma threat-motivated nondisclosure” is
dangerous because it is could be an indicator for
later revictimization and impacts a survivor’s
recovery and healing process (Miller et al. 2011,
120). Disclosure to the legal system, the medical
system, and the self-acknowledgement of sexual
assault, all aid in the recovery process and
sometimes can prevent the onset of PTSD. Two
solutions to lower the chance of stigma threat in
disclosing to law enforcement are as follows:
increasing sensitivity training of law enforcement
and the presence of survivor advocates. With
sensitivity training, Officers are more likely to use
sensitive techniques when equipped with
sensitivity training and survivors who worked with
advocates experience less secondary victimization
from legal personal (Smith, Wilkes, and Bouffard
2014). Policy should be used to create law
enforcement trainings around trauma-informed
methods and supporting survivor advocates.
Methods
The data for this report was drawn from the
National Crime Victimization Survey from 2014.
Data is collected through a nationally-represented
sample of households through asking questions to
victims of crimes. It is reported that 90,380
households and 158,090 individuals were
interviewed. The response rate was 84 percent for
households and 87 percent for eligible persons.
The estimated victimization rate of 20.1 per 1,000
has a standard error of 1.2. With a 95 percent
confidence interval, the victimization rate falls
between 17.7 and 22.5 per 1,000 persons.
The independent variable of being a victim of
sexual assault (n =121,430) was compared to the
dependent variable of reporting to the police
(n=7,469, 084). The control variables of cooperated
with offender and resisted offender were then
used. I ran cross tabulations to look at the
relationship of the independent variable on the
dependent variable and then I controlled for
“cooperated with offender” and “resisted
offender.” Statistically significance tests were done
using Chi-square to assess the significance of the
relationships. Lambda, Phi, and Cramer’s V were
then conducted to analyze the strength of these
relationships.
References
Deitz, Mandi F., Stacey L. Williams,Sean C. Rife, and Peggy
Cantrell.2015.“Examining Cultural,Social,and Self-Related
Aspects of Stigma in Relation to Sexual Assaultand Trauma
Symptoms.” Violence Against Women 21 (5): 598-615.
Mennicke, Annelise, Delaney Anderson, Karen Oehme, and
Stephanie Kennedy. 2014.“Law Enforcement Officers’
Perception of Rape and Rape Victims:A Multimethod Study.”
Violence and Victims 29 (5): 814-827.
Miller,Audrey K., Erika J. Canales,Amanda M. Amacker,
Tamika L. Backstrom, and CristineA. Gidyez. 2011. “Stigma-
Threat Motivated Nondisclosureof Sexual Assaultand Sexual
Revictimization:A Prospective Analysis.”Psychology of
Women Quarterly 35 (1): 119-128.
Smith, Molly,NicoleWilkes,and Leana A. Bouffard.2014.
“Rape Myth Adherence Among Campus Law Enforcement
Officers.”Criminal Justice and Behavior 43 (4): 539-556.
