WASHINGTON - THERE were 88,097 rapes in the United States in 2009 alone, according to FBI statistics, but the crime remains one of the least reported and prosecuted, witnesses told US lawmakers on Tuesday.
'It's widely recognised that rape is one of the most underreported offenses in the United States with empirical studies estimating that merely 15-20 per cent of cases are reported to the police,' Michelle Dempsey, a professor at Villanova University School of Law told senators.
Roughly one in six women in the United States will experience sexual aggression during their lifetime and half of the victims were younger than 18 at the time of the assault, an investigation presented to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee said.
Only five per cent of rapists are convicted and only three percent are imprisoned, Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, told the committee.
'Fifteen out of 16 rapists in America will walk free,' said Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. That comes despite the FBI's classification of rape as second only in seriousness to murder.
Experts said a range of factors make rape difficult to prosecute, including the way it is defined, victims' fear, their desire to avoid humiliating witness testimony, and unsympathetic or incompetent policing. -- AFP
Source: ST Online
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