Posted on 07/19/2003 10:54:27 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
State and local officials disagree on the accuracy of a national study estimating that one Utah woman in five has been raped. However, most of them do agree that the situation bears a closer look. And a new multidisciplinary state council plans on taking one.
The Utah Sexual Violence Council is made up of representatives from victim advocates and from organizations including the Department of Health, the Department of Corrections, the Utah Sentencing Commission and the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
"It's just in its infancy," said Ned Searle, domestic violence state coordinator. "We're having the first real meetings in the next month."
Its first item of business: Addressing the May report from the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center, an organization established and partly funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control.
The aim of the report, which estimates that 20.6 percent of adult women in Utah -- more than 157,000 women -- have been the victim of forcible rape sometime in their lifetime, is to encourage states to conduct their own studies.
Recently, the state of Washington did so, according to the report. And that state found its own numbers were higher than the national survey's -- meaning the survey estimate was a conservative one. Similar results could be found in Utah because of data limitations in the national study, the report said.
"We hope to find somebody in the state of Utah to do some research," Searle said.
The numbers do not mean one woman in five was raped in Utah, the report said. Survey methods were based on where women were living when surveyed -- not where they were living when they were raped.
"If those numbers are even near true, this is beyond what we ever thought possible," said Grace Call, executive director of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
Call said she presented the survey at the council's most-recent meeting. "The initial reaction was, 'We need to know more about this problem in Utah,' " she said.
The study used information from two surveys regarding rape: The National Women's Study, conducted in 1989, and the National Violence Against Women Survey, conducted in 1995. These "are widely viewed as being the best studies yet conducted with respect to providing information about rape prevalence," the report said.
Researchers determined demographic and geographic risk factors among participants in the first two studies, then obtained a breakdown of the Utah population of women fitting those risk factors using Census data. The national estimate of rape was statistically adjusted based on the age and ethnic breakdown of Utah adult women, as well as the state's geographical location, the report said.
Statistics released for the first quarter of 2003 show a slight decrease in forcible rapes compared with the first quarter of 2002 -- from 203 down to 177.
Searle said the most disturbing aspect of the study, to him, was a chart showing the differences in the lifetime prevalence of rape according to census region. In the mid-Atlantic states, for instance, the percentage of women who had ever been raped was 10 percent. In the West -- Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah -- it was 19.6 percent.
Both Searle and Call stopped short of saying they believed the survey numbers are accurate, but said they do believe sexual assault is a problem in Utah, regardless of the numbers.
National studies have shown only one rape in six is reported to law enforcement. Of cases seen at the Salt Lake City-based Rape Recovery Center in 2001, only two victims in 10 reported an assault to police, according to Jamee Roberts, the center's executive director.
"For many people, rape and sexual assault are hidden crimes, rarely discussed in public," Searle said. "That silence contributes to the problem itself."
Call said it is frustrating to her when statistics are used to determine whether something can be called a problem. Statistics, she said, can be used to prove anything.
But, she said, "if we know one person in our lives this has happened to, isn't that enough?"
aebroughton@sltrib.com
IMHO
We pointed out that the university president is going to be real happy when we call his office and tell him that they are spreading that "statistic" around. (Sure enough, they got their asses handed to them by the university when the front office found out!) The university is always bragging about the low crime rate since they're trying to attract people to the school, not drive them away.
... and are just willing to open up to.
You be a lucky man.
--Boris
Liberal hor$e$hit ...another attempt to smear marriage, no doubt...you know what the N.O.W. gals think about it.
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