There were 12 reports of rape at UCLA in 2003, a 200 percent
increase from four in 2002 and the highest number of rapes reported
on campus in at least four years.
But the statistics do not tell the entire story because rape is
one of the most under-reported crimes and even when reported,
arrests and prosecutions are not automatic.
An estimated 61.5 percent of rapes and sexual assaults were not
reported to police in 2003 according to a report from the Bureau of
Justice Statistics. Many experts estimate the percentage to be much
higher. Of the rapes reported, just over 50 percent will end in an
arrest, the report says.
Tina Oakland, director of the UCLA Center for Women & Men,
said there are many reasons women decide not to report an act of
sexual violence to police.
“They may be tremendously ashamed. There’s a lot of
self-blame that goes along with the assault,” Oakland
said.
A person may not want their parents to know they have had sex,
they may think no one is going to believe their story, or they may
blame themselves for drinking too much or being in a vulnerable
position, Oakland said.
Scott Berkowitz, director of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National
Network, said rape victims on campuses often face extra challenges
compared to those assaulted off-campus.
“Often, the rape is to someone that lives in the same
community or in a similar group of friends. There’s a fear of
upsetting that whole social arrangement,” Berkowitz said.
Many colleges also discourage students from reporting the
incident to police and try to handle the incident administratively,
Berkowitz added.
Gelareh Nikpour, a fourth-year history, international
development and women’s studies student and one of the
directors of Women and Youth Supporting Each Other said high
profile cases such as the Kobe Bryant trial and the UCLA Jane Doe
case can deter women from reporting assaults.
These cases send the message that lawyers are going to try and
make rape victims feel as though the incident was their fault,
Nikpour said.
Even in instances when a victim does report the rape, an arrest
and prosecution may not follow.
In 2003, 12 rapes were reported to university police but there
were zero arrests.
Nancy Greenstein, director of communications for university
police, said there were no arrests because either the victim
decided not to pursue prosecution or the district attorney chose
not to prosecute the case.
“It doesn’t mean we don’t know who the suspect
is,” Greenstein said, noting that most rape is acquaintance
rape. “Sometimes the survivor decides they don’t want
to move forward.”
The district attorney may also not prosecute the case after
university police present them with their investigation.
“It is just a very hard case to prove. There’s
usually no witnesses, there’s usually no external evidence.
It (sometimes) comes down to he said, she said. And that’s a
very difficult case for a prosecutor to prove,” Berkowitz
said.
Even though cases are often difficult to prosecute and arrests
are not made, Greenstein said it is important for rape victims to
report the crime.
If the same person has been involved in another incident, or the
rape happened at a location similar to other incidents, Greenstein
said their report could help establish a pattern necessary for
prosecution.
Jackson Katz, a first-year cultural studies doctoral student,
said one of the first steps to decreasing the number of assaults
against women is to focus on violence prevention education with
males and boys. Katz specializes in education about violence
prevention, and has lectured in many colleges across the
nation.
Katz says most people think rape is a women’s issue and to
make progress preventing rapes, the focus needs to shift to
men.
“We have to identify the issue of rape as a men’s
issue. Over 99 percent of rape is perpetrated by men,” Katz
said. “You have women being taught not to put their drinks
down, to avoid vulnerable situations … That’s all risk
reduction for women. It’s not about the woman and her
behavior; it’s about the man. We need to have a shift in our
whole conceptual thinking about this.”
Katz said there is also a stereotype that women often falsely
accuse men of rape.
“Guys have this wildly inflated sense that there are all
of these women out there falsely accusing rape,” Katz said.
“It’s not logical at all.”