Understanding Sexual Victimization:

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• Understanding Sexual Victimization
• Using Medical Provider Data to Describe the
  Nature and Context of Sexual Crime in
  Massachusetts

Robert Fallon Sarah Lawrence Shelley
Penman Massachusetts Executive Office of Public
Safety Research and Policy Analysis Unit
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• Massachusetts state law requires any medical
  professional treating a victim of rape or sexual
  assault to report the crime to
• The State of Massachusetts
• The local police department where the crime
  occurred
• The reporting instrument is the Provider Sexual
  Crime Report (PSCR)
• Massachusetts has compiled these data into a
  database that includes 5,083 unique cases for
  January 2000-August 2005

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• 140 data items are captured per case that allow
  for detailed analyses of several aspects of
  sexual crime in Massachusetts
• Victim characteristics
• Offender characteristics
• Nature of the crime
• Reporting to police
• Database includes all crimes where the victim
  sought medical treatment
• This includes crimes where the victim did not
  report to the police

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• Most victims were female (96)
• Victim age was skewed toward younger ages
• Mean age 24 years
• Median age 20 years
• Modal age 18 years

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• Compared to Census data, 10-17 and 18-24 year
  olds were disproportionately victimized

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• 64 of offenders were known to the victim
• Acquaintance was the most commonly reported
  victim-offender relationship type (35)

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• 5.4 of victims filed for a restraining order
  against the assailant post-assault
• This varied by victim-offender relationship

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• Most sexual crimes occurred between 1000 PM and
  200 AM
• The most commonly reported time of assault was
  200 AM

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• Verbal threats were the most frequently reported
  type of force (25 of all crimes)
• Weapons (knives, guns) were uncommon

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• 45 of victims received a medical exam within 12
  hours
• 71 of victims received an exam within 24 hours

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• For 2003, 43 of all sexual crimes were
  concentrated in 10 cities
• Compared to 2003 Massachusetts UCR data3, sexual
  crime is less concentrated in cities than other
  types of violent crime

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3 Source Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2003
Crime in the United States.
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• 73 of victims reported the crime to the police
• 77 of males and 74 of females reported the
  crime to the police

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• Reporting to the police varied by victim-offender
  relationship

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