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Thursday, September 27, 2007 {TheBLUE Banner} News Page 3 Reported rapes on the rise in North Carolina Officials say numbers could reflect confidential reporting, rejection of old social stigmas By Courtney Metz Staff WatTER Reported forcible rapes rose in every major North Carolina city in 2006, even though the national rate decreased by nearly two per cent, according to the 2006 Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Rape is now not necessarily something that needs to be hidden, like it has been in the past,” said Tim Splain, captain of criminal investigations for the Asheville Police Department. “That con tributes to some of the increase in the numbers.” Violent crime increased across the nation by 1.3 percent in 2006, a rise for the second straight year, according to FBI data. “It would make sense that if vio lent crime on the whole is going up, if we are seeing across the board more violence, then the chances are that sexual violence would increase as well,” said Barbara Anderson, executive director of OurVOICE, the sexual abuse help agency for Madison and Buncombe counties. “So it could be it’s increasing in the state.” The change in the way we live as a society may be a contributing factor, according to Splain. “As we as a society become a lit tle more disengaged from each other, and computers become more popular and we are communicat ing more in technical manners as opposed to face-to-face communi cation, a lot of this disengaged population resorts to Internet pornography and other things like that,” Splain said. “Some of that is cultivating a group of people who rap>e as opposed to interact.” Reporting Still, while the majority of the nation saw a drop in reported rapes. North Carolina cities saw heavy increases. Winston-Salem’s reported rapes rose 25 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to the Annual Uniform Crime Report. However, most said they hope the drastic increase in North Carolina is a result of an increase in report ing, rather than an increase in inci dents, according to Anderson. “More individuals are coming forward,” Anderson said. “That’s a positive sign. It means the com munity is helping those individuals feel OK about reporting. We know there are more assaults that happen that we never hear about.” A rape occurs every three hours and 52 minutes in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Many rape victims have a diffi cult time reporting, according to Anderson. Victims report less than 1 in 3 rapes and sexual assaults to law enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The more we bring this out in the open, the less of an issue it will become. You have to talk about something in order to make a difference. Illustration by Emma Kitson Recently, statistics show victims of sexual assault might be more likely to report the crime because societal pressures and stigmas are lessening. Reported forcible rapes rose in every major North Carolina city last year, according to the FBI’s 2006 Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report. “It’s so hard for victims to sepa rate themselves from the crime,” Anderson said. Victims who report rapes face a very tough road ahead of them, according to Splain. The process forces them to relive the situation many times in statements and in preparation for trial. Still, most police officers said they encourage all victims to report and hope they will, according to Splain. Rape is the most costly crime in the United States to its victims, according to the NCCASA. The cost totals $127 billion a year, including medical costs, lost earn ings, pain, suffering and lost qual ity of life. “It’s a difficult and very person al decision,” Splain said. “My hope would be that whoever was raped would report it.” The possibility of repeat offend ers makes reporting rape impor tant, according to Splain. “We know people who are serial rapists,” Splain said. “We know from prostitutes and other females there are people out here in our community who are serial rapists. But catching them and having the right victim and the right witness is very difficult.” The Asheville Police Department, in corroboration with OurVOICE, now allows “blind reporting.” Through this system, victims can report rapes anony mously and give as much informa tion as they feel comfortable. “What we find, and have found for quite some time, is the number of rapes reported are those that an actual police report is made by the victim,” Anderson said. “Those numbers don’t match the number of reports we get in a year. There are far less reported to the police than are reported to us, because not every individual that has been raped wants to press charges or wants to make a report. Many of them call and tell us but don’t go to the hospital, don’t want to see the police, don’t want to do anything, and that’s certainly their choice.” While the Asheville Police Department reported 47 rapes in 2006, OurVOICE recorded 108 reported rapes. OurVOICE greatly contributes to the number of rapes reported, according to Splain. “In the past, police officers messed this up,” Splain said. “They’ve messed up the whole reporting thing. They’ve been so callous and cold and uncaring that female rape victims did not want to report the crime. OurVOICE and some of these other service providers have come in and they’ve allowed women to see that there is another side of it.” Local Statistics Asheville reported rape statistics rose even more drastically than some of the larger cities in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Reported rapes in Buncombe County more than doubled between 2005 and 2006, where 2005 saw 33 forcible rapes report ed and 2006 saw 68. “When you are looking at over a 200 percent increase in a certain statistic, that tells you something,” Splain said. “I don’t know if it’s completely the fact that we are doing a better job in reporting these crimes, or that there is that much of a jump in the predatory population that we have out here.” In the city of Asheville, reported rapes jumped from 21 in 2005 to 47 in 2006. So far in 2007, there have been 21 reported rapes, 13 of which were statutory rapes. “I don’t have a valid reason why (the rise in statistics) actually occurred,” Splain said. “But just like all the other violent crime that is increasing, rape is going to fol low right along with that.” To combat these numbers, the Asheville Police Department increased crime prevention efforts, according to Splain. They have also tried to educate the Asheville area. “We are also offering citizen police academies and junior citi zen police academies,” Splain said. “All of these things are aimed at trying to better educate the public and make them more aware of their surroundings and personal safety. Rape is just part of that.” Campus Statistics There were no reported forcible sex offenses on the UNC Asheville campus between 2003 and 2006, according to the Annual Crime Statistics report. The statistics may lead some students to question their accuracy, according to cam pus police. “I do think that there are some rapes that go unreported,” said Jerry Adams, assistant chief of campus police. “I think that more often it’s acquaintance assault, and the person knows the attacker and doesn’t want to get him into trou ble, so they don’t want to report it..” A victim has the right to remain anonymous, according to the Annual Campus Safety report. Victims may choose to avoid tak ing action within the university system or criminal justice system while still reporting crimes for sta tistical purposes. Confidential reports can help universities keep records of when and where such crimes occur with out forcing victims to go through the process of prosecuting, accord ing to campus police. It’s hard to remain anonymous on a campus, according to Anderson. “When you’re talking about a very small community, for some one to come forward, as much as you want to be confidential, the chances are very high that the information is going to get out,” she said. Anderson also said it doesn’t surprise her that there isn’t a lot of reporting on college campuses. “I think there’s lots of confusion about what is sexual assault partly because 1 think we are just con fused about it in general,” she said. Protecting Yourself There are ways people can pro tect themselves from potential rapists, according to Anderson. “The way you keep safe is to just be very aware, as aware as you can be, of what’s going on around you,” Anderson said. “Try as best Barbara Aiuici-son F.xccurivc 1 lircctor. OurVOICF, you can to have an out Not going out alone at night, using the buddy system and nut becoming impaired by drugs or alcohol are other good ways to keep safe, Anderson said. “Alcohol and drugs play a huge role with assault because our judg ment is impaired,” Anderson said. “If you are under the inllucnce of something, did you really give con.sent? Probably not.” People should also guard the information they make available to the public, according to Splain. “Where we have to be really careful now is in all this virtual data that is out there now,” Splain said. “If it’s out there, it's avail able to people. If they look hard enough, they can find information on me or on you, and then they can approach us and make it appear like they really know us, like they have had some personal relation ship with us and we have just for gotten or something like that. People have to be really careful about that.” It is especially important to be careful about the information pro vided on Internet Web sites such as MySpacc or Facebook, according to Splain. People should avoid providing addresses, telephone numbers, birthdays, ages or loca tion. All this information can make a person vulnerable to an attacker, according to Splain. The most important thing is edu cating yourself about the problem, according to Anderson. “The more we bring this out in the open, the less of an issue it will become,” Anderson said. “You have to talk about something in order to make a difference.” Contributions by Clary Tedford, staff writer Kristen Marshall, news editor Coming soon, to a computer near you. 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