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Monday, January 12, 2015

Rape Underreported in Detroit

     Detroit police on Tuesday January 6, 2015 reported there had been 322 sexual assaults in the city last year, but the actual number was more than five times that: 1,845 reports according to the
Detroit News. Behind the vastly different numbers are two factors: Detroit police, like most departments, release statistics to the public using the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting method that doesn't count all sexual assaults. Also, the city uses old CRISNET reporting software which doesn't automatically update changes in investigations.

     "There's nothing nefarious going on," Police Chief James Craig said. "Nobody's scrubbing anything; this is just the way crimes are reported industrywide." The reporting method gives people a false impression about the scope of sexual assaults, said Jennifer Jones, director of the Sexual Assault Advocacy Center in Colorado, who added that rapes already are underreported. "Even if a victim does call the police, they're sometimes talked out of making a report," Jones said. "Between that and the way sexual assaults are reported, a lot of statistics get left out."

"Detroit Reports 322 Sexual Assaults Last Year; Actual Number 5 Times Higher," thecrimereport.org, January 8, 2015 

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