Victim and Community Safety: A Multi-faceted Approach
There is little, if any, doubt that most victims of sexual assault believe the rapist or perpetrator deserves harsh penalties, and should get them. Sex offenders do heinous things to their victims, sometimes robbing them of their childhood, their dignity, their sense of self and spirit, their sense of security in their own home and community, their sense of family connections, their health, education, and employment, and sometimes even their life.
Victims who have found success in the criminal justice system through a conviction of the perpetrator would wholeheartedly support enhanced penalties and management of offenders. These initiatives would also bring welcome relief to those victims who were able to participate in the prosecution of the perpetrator but then saw this convicted offender receive a sentence of only 6 months in jail followed by probation. On their behalf KCSDV fully supports enhanced penalties and management.
It is also important to speak for the other victims for whom these initiatives will do nothing. For many victims, the barriers of getting to the penalty phase are simply too great. Fear of public exposure and humiliation, embarrassment, self-blame, fear of the criminal justice system, and the fear that they won't be believed are in fact powerful barriers to reporting or maintaining participation in the system. In fact, only 10% to 33% of rapes are ever reported to law enforcement agencies. And, research clearly indicates that of those rapes that are reported few are prosecuted or result in actual conviction.
- Only 10% to 33% of all rapes are reported (U.S. Justice Dept.)
There is no good information about the actual prevalence of all sexual violence. - Only 35% to 49% result in an arrest
- Only 14% to 35% result in prosecution, and
- Only 14% to 17% result in a conviction.
Initiatives that focus on already convicted sex offenders will address only 1% to 6% of rapists living in our communities; probably an even smaller number if all sexual assaults are considered. Even if we assume that many convicted sex offenders perpetrate numerous times, this still leaves the vast majority of perpetrators unidentified or unsuccessfully held accountable by the criminal justice system. These numbers show an obvious gap between the numbers of victims who will benefit from the enhanced penalties and the numbers of victims who cannot or will not come forward because the cost is too great, the risk too severe, and the support too scarce.
We MUST address this gap if enhanced penalties are going to mean anything to the majority of victims.
Back to previous page.
XHTML | CSS | 508 | Accessibility Statement
If you have comments about the design of this website, please contact our web designer.