Every year, there are thousands of sex crimes that are reported to the police. For instance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Criminal Victimization Survey found that, for people over the age of 11, there were 346,830 reports of sexual assault or rape. That statistic is for 2012. In the same year, there were 62,939 reported cases of sexual abuse of children.
On the outside, such high numbers make it appear that most cases must be reported and investigated. However, the Department of Justice says that is not actually the case. In fact, they believe that only around 30 percent of all of the cases get reported. This leaves the vast majority — 70 percent — unreported on a year-by-year basis.
If the stats are correct, this means that there were 809,270 cases in 2012 that were not reported for those who were at least 12 years old. That number does not even take into account those under that age. It would make for a total in that category of 1,156,100.
Naturally, this is simply an estimate. There is no real way to know exactly how many cases are not reported each year, as stats cannot be kept. The only way to know is to look at surveys and other ways of gathering information and then to extrapolate those numbers. However, if they are anywhere close to correct, it shows how often these cases happen.
Anyone in Colorado Springs who is accused of a sex crime deserves a fair trial, holding the same rights to due process as anyone else, and it’s important for these rights to be upheld.
Source: The U.S. Department of Justice, “Facts and Statistics,” accessed May. 18, 2015
