Predicting the Reporting of Rape Victimizations

Despite widespread rape reform laws that have been implemented in this country, victims of rape still face the risk of receiving social stigma should they decide to make their victimization known to authorities. Because formal sanctions have been found to deter rape at both individual and aggregate levels, it is important to understand as much as possible about the pivotal point at which this formal sanctioning process begins: the reporting decision a rape victim makes. Using a contemporary sample from the National Crime Victimization Survey for the years 1987 to 1990, this article investigated the factors related to the police-reporting behavior of rape victims. The results indicated that victims were significantly more likely to report a rape if the offender had used physical force and if the victim had received medical attention for injuries sustained during the commission of the crime. Although the pertinent analyses approached significance, it was found that, unlike earlier studies, victims were not more likely to report a rape if the perpetrator was a stranger or if the victimization occurred away from the victim's home.