Correlates of Reasons for Not Reporting Rape to Police Results From a National Telephone Household Probability Sample of Women With Forcible or Drug-or-Alcohol Facilitated/Incapacitated Rape

• Published in: Journal of interpersonal violence Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 455 - 473
• Main Authors: Cohn, Amy M., Zinzow, Heidi M., Resnick, Heidi S., Kilpatrick, Dean G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-02-2013; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adult; Alcohol use; Alcoholic Intoxication - epidemiology; Battered Women - legislation & jurisprudence; Battered Women - psychology; Battered Women - statistics & numerical data; Crime Victims - legislation & jurisprudence; Crime Victims - psychology; Crime Victims - statistics & numerical data; Criminal Justice; Criminals; Depression (Psychology); Depression - epidemiology; Drug use; Factor Analysis; Female; Females; Health Problems; Humans; Justice; Methodology (Data Collection); Middle Aged; Police; Police reports; Post traumatic stress disorder; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Prevalence; Prevention; Prevention programs; Rape; Rape - legislation & jurisprudence; Rape - psychology; Rape - statistics & numerical data; Sampling Studies; Shame; Social Perception; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology; Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology; Truth Disclosure; United States - epidemiology; Women's Health; Young Adult; United States; substance use; rape acknowledgment; victimization; police reporting; sexual assault
• ISSN: 0886-2605; 1552-6518
• DOI: 10.1177/0886260512455515

Rape tactics, rape incident characteristics, and mental health problems (lifetime depression, PTSD, and substance abuse) were investigated as correlates of eight different reasons for not reporting a rape to police among women who had experienced but did not report a rape to police (n = 441) within a national telephone household probability sample. Rape tactics (nonmutually exclusive) included drug or alcohol-facilitated or incapacitated rape (DAFR/IR; n = 119) and forcible rape (FR; n = 376). Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was conducted to extract a dominant set of patterns among the eight reasons for not reporting, and to reduce the set of dependent variables. PCA results indicated three unique factors: Not Wanting Others to Know, Nonacknowledgment of Rape, and Criminal Justice Concerns. Hierarchical regression analyses showed DAFR/IR and FR were both positively and significantly associated with Criminal Justice Concerns, whereas DAFR/IR, but not FR, was associated with Nonacknowledgment as a reason for not reporting to police. Neither DAFR/IR nor FR emerged as significant predictors of Others Knowing after controlling for fear of death or injury at the time of the incident. Correlations among variables showed that the Criminal Justice Concerns factor was positively related to lifetime depression and PTSD and the Nonacknowledgement factor was negatively related to lifetime PTSD. Findings suggest prevention programs should educate women about the definition of rape, which may include incapacitation due to alcohol or drugs, to increase acknowledgement and decrease barriers to police reporting.