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Utah's sexual assault rate outpaces U.S. average
Salt Lake Tribune ^ | April 6, 2010 | Nate Carlisle

Posted on 04/07/2010 5:41:37 AM PDT by Colofornian

Sexual assault is the lone violent crime in which Utah is worse than the national average, according to the state Department of Health, which says as many as one-third of Utah women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

The state is reciting those numbers as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which runs through April, because Utah's rate of rape against women is about 10 percent higher than the national average, according to the department.

Sexual assault by a stranger is rare. The department said someone is most likely to be assaulted by family members, spouses or a partner.

Rachel Brighton, coordinator of Sexual Assault & Anti Violence Info at Utah State University, said students and even some faculty are surprised when they hear the statistics.

"We think of violence the way it's portrayed on television," Brighton said. "It's a stranger, the scary perpetrator hiding in the bushes with a knife or a gun."

A Department of Health survey said one in three Utah women experiences sexual violence in her lifetime.

The reasons behind why Utah has a high rape rate are difficult to pinpoint. But Alana Kindness, executive director of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said researchers do know some risk factors.

"Unfortunately, one of those risks is being young, and we have one of the highest rates of young people under the age of 18," she said.

Kindness said her group tries to teach both sexes how to have healthy relationships with partners, family, co-workers and others.

Utah is "not doing real well in teaching how to conduct relationships where we are not violating someone else's boundaries," Kindness said.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: rape; sexualassault; staterate; violence
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To: netmilsmom
My own sister has a huge narrative about my dad sexually abusing her. She is terribly sick and has been treated for years. There is not, nor has there ever been proof of her story and there are huge hole in it. How do you think she would respond to a call like this?

Of course, there are, and always have been, false reports going back to the woman who falsely accused Joseph in the book of Genesis. But if Joseph's family had then projected that false accusation onto other circumstances, then that would have been problematic. Just because the false cases exist doesn't downplay the real ones.

I only mentioned a few stats pertaining to the study -- and yes it was done by a telephone survey...but the first stat I quoted from it can be verified by actual crime stats (child molestation; child rape).

21 posted on 04/07/2010 6:52:12 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Maybe Utah women report rape at a higher rate than the average.


22 posted on 04/07/2010 6:54:12 AM PDT by super7man
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To: envisio

This is the ‘median’


23 posted on 04/07/2010 6:55:05 AM PDT by Sioux-san
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To: super7man
Maybe Utah women report rape at a higher rate than the average.

Perhaps, but I doubt it, and here's why:
(1) I looked @ NationMaster.com a few years ago when they listed state-by-state sex offender rates. Utah was fairly high in the sex offender rate. When you compared rape rates by state to sex offender rates by state, there was usually a correlation (Alaska #1 in each category).
(2) What seems to be a little more unusual about Utah, is that except for the Ted Bundy types (Bundy was a Mormon from Utah), there seems to be less "serial" rapes for this state. I think if you were to talk with law enforcement officials and rape counselors, they would tell you that, if anything, stranger rape & molestation tends to be reported more -- and family/friend rape/molestation tends to be reported less.

So if almost 87% of these cases are family members & acquaintances, and if these types of cases tend to be reported less, then Utah's probably an "iceberg" state where what the sidebar in this article said is probably true: "About 88 percent of rapes are not reported to law enforcement." Source: Utah Department of Health, Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification

24 posted on 04/07/2010 7:11:11 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: Colofornian
"Sexual assault is the lone violent crime in which Utah is worse than the national average, according to the state Department of Health"

Could also be better crime reporting in Utah than in other states. As I understand it, the only useful comparable statistic among jurisdictions is the homicide rate because it's awfully difficult to sweep dead bodies under the rug.

25 posted on 04/07/2010 7:14:51 AM PDT by Sooth2222 ("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)
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To: Sooth2222
Could also be better crime reporting in Utah than in other states...the only useful comparable statistic among jurisdictions is the homicide rate because it's awfully difficult to sweep dead bodies under the rug.

No. See my post #24. If over half of the rape & sexual assault in Utah is coming from family members, that's even more likely by victims to be swept under the rug...not more likely to report it.

26 posted on 04/07/2010 7:19:12 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: Colofornian
about 6% for "husbands" and 2% for ex-husbands

Good researching.

I wonder if those numbers fit the "Utah's sexual assault rate outpaces U.S. average" headline.

As Mark Twain said, "There are lies, d*mn lies, and statistics." Sensationalist journalism and "research" are too unreliable for me to take them seriously. Tarring men as sexual predators is a common theme.

Lumping all sexual misconduct together is a favorite tactic recently. (For instance, a 20-yr-old young man having sex with his 17-yr-old girlfriend can result in a lifelong "sexual offender" label, lumping him in with pedophiles and ruining his life forever.) This is why I object to vague, all-encompassing terms like "sexual assault". As others have put it, "copping a feel off a 17 year old girl as you are crossing paths in the school hall", while hardly acceptable and gentlemanly behavior, is lumped in the same category with violent rape only by agenda-driven, headline-seeking men-haters.
27 posted on 04/07/2010 7:31:44 AM PDT by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: Colofornian
Sexual assault by a stranger is rare. The department said someone is most likely to be assaulted by family members, spouses or a partner.

Why is 'a partner' singular, and 'spouses' plural? Because this is Utah?

28 posted on 04/07/2010 8:22:02 AM PDT by sportutegrl (VETO PROOF MAJORITY IN 2010)
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To: Colofornian

>>But if Joseph’s family had then projected that false accusation onto other circumstances, then that would have been problematic. Just because the false cases exist doesn’t downplay the real ones. <<

Pitifully, it does. Just as a higher amount of false positives in any study slants the evidence.
I worked Psych. I can’t tell you how many cases of “repressed memory” we had to fix. Please don’t accuse me of downplaying rape and molestation. I’m not. However, I question a phone survey’s accuracy. It’s the study and not the act.

You need to read John Stossel’s book. “Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity.”


29 posted on 04/07/2010 8:43:35 AM PDT by netmilsmom (I am Ilk)
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To: Colofornian
Thorough analysis. Thanks.

It is truly a strange finding and not what I might have expected given the outward appearance of the Mormons.

30 posted on 04/07/2010 9:53:19 AM PDT by super7man
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To: super7man
I don't see how this ncessarily correlates with Mormonism. Yes, the population of Utah is about 60% Mormon; but that's steadily shrinking. If current trends continue, LDS residents no longer will constitute a majority by 2030.

Did the study find any link between sexual violence and membership in the LDS?

31 posted on 04/07/2010 10:14:51 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Point of clarification.)
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To: LearsFool

Or it sounds like a statistic that comes from an area where plural marriage ( even if in a celestial sense) is practised and condoned. With women seen as chattel ( and they are viewed as such by the LDS) and a weak desire for prosecution, frequently the idea that just because you want some does not make it okay


32 posted on 04/07/2010 12:39:41 PM PDT by the long march
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Comment #33 Removed by Moderator

To: P-Marlowe

You loon the report sites RAPE not assault. RAPE for crying out loud....


34 posted on 04/07/2010 12:41:41 PM PDT by the long march
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Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: the long march; Colofornian
You loon the report sites RAPE not assault. RAPE for crying out loud....

I guess you didn't read the report itself. The report was based on telephone interviews and not based on crime statistics. I suspect that if you looked at the incidence of reported "rapes" in Utah, that the number would be less than the national average.

I frankly don't trust any "report" issued by governmental agencies that is based on anonymous telephone interviews. They also lump any unwanted touching as some kind of "sexual assault". I am convinced that the author of this report was a feminist and a flaming liberal and the questions were designed to elicit the responses that they wanted.

36 posted on 04/07/2010 12:49:21 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: the long march; Colofornian
you too are as big a pig as the other so called men

I believe we have a liberal feminist in our midst.

37 posted on 04/07/2010 12:51:16 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe

Rape does not have to be reported to the police to be rape.

I am so tired of the boorish men who ‘would hit that’ , boys just being boys, copping a feel, and other animalistic behavior that somehow you think is acceptable.

You are incapable of understanding that “unwanted touching” can INDEED be sexual assault. You can be as convinced as you want but until you let me have someone rape you you will NEVER understand


38 posted on 04/07/2010 1:18:29 PM PDT by the long march
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Comment #39 Removed by Moderator

To: DuncanWaring

They can marry (and marry and marry and marry..........).


40 posted on 04/07/2010 1:31:42 PM PDT by svcw (Religion is like giving someone who is dying of thirst mouthwash.)
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