http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...125rapemain,1,5445462.story?coll=chi-news-hed
The rape epidemic
By Kathryn Masterson
RedEye
Published January 25, 2006
In December, over DePaul's winter break, police reported that a man broke into a student's apartment and sexually assaulted her. Police and university officials alerted the public to the crime, and the case received attention from newspapers and TV stations.
But the DePaul case wasn't the only sexual assault in Chicago that weekend, said Angela Exson, the head of advocacy for Rape Victim Advocates.
That same weekend, volunteers from the group responded to 11 sexual assault victims in emergency rooms across the city.
"What we see in the newspaper or on television--it doesn't match what we see as service providers," Exson said. Rape "happens every single day."
In Chicago last year, sexual assaults (including rape and other types of sexual penetration) were reported to police at an average of more than three a day. Most of those cases never made the news. They were reported in every neighborhood but one, at nearly every time of day. The heaviest concentration of reports came from the city's South and West Sides.
Anti-rape activists say the number of rapes in Chicago is higher than police data shows, because most go unreported.
"It's an epidemic," said Tara Bryant Edwards, director of counseling for Rape Victim Advocates. "It's an epidemic, and it touches everyone, directly or indirectly."
The public isn't aware of the high number of rapes, Bryant Edwards said, because many don't fit society's idea of a stranger jumping out of the bushes at women. Instead, the rapist usually is someone the victim knows. Acquaintance rape can be as devastating as an attack from a stranger, Bryant Edwards said.
"These are life-changing events," she said. "People feel like they lose a part of themselves. Their relationships change ... it claims a part of their lives."
To examine the scope of sexual assault across the city last year, RedEye reported the location, date and time of every sexual assault of a victim 13 or older reported to Chicago police in 2005.
According to Chicago police, there were 1,214 such reports in 2005, an average of 3.3 a day. (RedEye data showed 1,239 reports. Monique Bond, director of news affairs for the police department, said the 25-case disparity is due to police later ruling some reports as unfounded.) Police data for 2005 show a total of 1,618 sexual assaults and attempted assaults (including adults and children) in the city, a drop from 1,757 in 2004. Bond attributes the decline to new strategies for deploying police officers in communities to combat all kinds of crimes.
According to a RedEye analysis of police data, every Chicago neighborhood but one--Clearing, on the Southwest Side--had at least one reported sexual assault in 2005. Almost two dozen neighborhoods had 20 or more reported sexual assaults during the year.
The communities that saw the largest number of reported sexual assaults--and the highest rate of sexual assaults by population--were mostly on the city's West and South Sides. Austin had the most reported assaults with 100; South Shore had 50. Communities with a high rate of reported rapes included Woodlawn, Greater Grand Crossing, Roseland, Englewood, Chatham and East Garfield Park.
Detective Jeffrey Roberts investigates sex crimes for Area 2, which covers a large part of the South Side. Last year, he and his partner investigated close to 100 sexual assault cases, he said.
Few of the cases he investigates become "heater" cases--like the DePaul attack--that draw attention and resources. More than half of the cases he sees are acquaintance rapes--someone from the neighborhood, an acquaintance of the victim's family--that don't warrant a community alert or sketch of a suspect. About 10 percent of Roberts' cases involve women who are drug users or prostitutes whose lifestyles make their cases difficult to prosecute.
Cases in higher-crime areas usually don't draw as much attention from the media and law enforcement as violent crimes in neighborhoods most people view as safe, Roberts said.
Roberts said he doesn't want any less attention for cases such as the DePaul rape or other North Side assaults. He'd like to see more attention provided for all sex crimes.
"It should be done everywhere," Roberts said. "I'm not saying don't do it. Do it for every one."
Roberts said all victims of sex crimes deserve equal treatment, no matter the circumstances surrounding their assault.
"A victim's a victim. I don't care about gender, color or class," he said. "It doesn't matter if you're making a million dollars or you're on public assistance. If you're sexually assaulted, you're still going to have the same nightmares."
Roberts did have a "heater" last fall when police linked a series of home invasions and sexual assaults or attempted assaults to one man. Victims reported that a man wearing a black ski mask broke into their homes when they were alone and attacked them. Police issued an alert and later arrested 21-year-old Prince Richard. He has been charged with three counts of criminal sexual assault, five counts of home invasion and two counts of burglary, Roberts said. He currently is being held without bond, according to the Cook County Sheriff's department.
Roberts believes better use of DNA could help police catch more rapists or catch them earlier. If DNA was taken from suspects arrested for crimes such as burglary or home invasion and put into a databank, it could help identify perpetrators if they had committed a sexual assault, he said.
A bill that would require DNA samples from everyone arrested for a felony has been proposed several times by State Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago) but has stalled in Springfield.
"Serial rapists would be shut down pretty quickly," Mendoza said about the proposed DNA samples.
Activists want a faster response. Tenille Power, who runs sexual assault services at the YWCA Harris Center on the South Side, was angry about what she believed was a slow response from law enforcement to the South Side serial attacks in the fall.
Power believed other areas, such as Wrigleyville in late 2004, received a faster response when a series of rapes were reported.
"That type of response does not happen on the South Side of Chicago," Power said.
Power believes the community needs to speak up, and that people should not accept and expect violence just because they live in certain neighborhoods.
She'd like to see the community confront the issue of rape with education and discussion about ways to reduce it.
"We don't talk about rape," Power said. "We sweep it under the rug and move on."
The rape epidemic
By Kathryn Masterson
RedEye
Published January 25, 2006
In December, over DePaul's winter break, police reported that a man broke into a student's apartment and sexually assaulted her. Police and university officials alerted the public to the crime, and the case received attention from newspapers and TV stations.
But the DePaul case wasn't the only sexual assault in Chicago that weekend, said Angela Exson, the head of advocacy for Rape Victim Advocates.
That same weekend, volunteers from the group responded to 11 sexual assault victims in emergency rooms across the city.
"What we see in the newspaper or on television--it doesn't match what we see as service providers," Exson said. Rape "happens every single day."
In Chicago last year, sexual assaults (including rape and other types of sexual penetration) were reported to police at an average of more than three a day. Most of those cases never made the news. They were reported in every neighborhood but one, at nearly every time of day. The heaviest concentration of reports came from the city's South and West Sides.
Anti-rape activists say the number of rapes in Chicago is higher than police data shows, because most go unreported.
"It's an epidemic," said Tara Bryant Edwards, director of counseling for Rape Victim Advocates. "It's an epidemic, and it touches everyone, directly or indirectly."
The public isn't aware of the high number of rapes, Bryant Edwards said, because many don't fit society's idea of a stranger jumping out of the bushes at women. Instead, the rapist usually is someone the victim knows. Acquaintance rape can be as devastating as an attack from a stranger, Bryant Edwards said.
"These are life-changing events," she said. "People feel like they lose a part of themselves. Their relationships change ... it claims a part of their lives."
To examine the scope of sexual assault across the city last year, RedEye reported the location, date and time of every sexual assault of a victim 13 or older reported to Chicago police in 2005.
According to Chicago police, there were 1,214 such reports in 2005, an average of 3.3 a day. (RedEye data showed 1,239 reports. Monique Bond, director of news affairs for the police department, said the 25-case disparity is due to police later ruling some reports as unfounded.) Police data for 2005 show a total of 1,618 sexual assaults and attempted assaults (including adults and children) in the city, a drop from 1,757 in 2004. Bond attributes the decline to new strategies for deploying police officers in communities to combat all kinds of crimes.
According to a RedEye analysis of police data, every Chicago neighborhood but one--Clearing, on the Southwest Side--had at least one reported sexual assault in 2005. Almost two dozen neighborhoods had 20 or more reported sexual assaults during the year.
The communities that saw the largest number of reported sexual assaults--and the highest rate of sexual assaults by population--were mostly on the city's West and South Sides. Austin had the most reported assaults with 100; South Shore had 50. Communities with a high rate of reported rapes included Woodlawn, Greater Grand Crossing, Roseland, Englewood, Chatham and East Garfield Park.
Detective Jeffrey Roberts investigates sex crimes for Area 2, which covers a large part of the South Side. Last year, he and his partner investigated close to 100 sexual assault cases, he said.
Few of the cases he investigates become "heater" cases--like the DePaul attack--that draw attention and resources. More than half of the cases he sees are acquaintance rapes--someone from the neighborhood, an acquaintance of the victim's family--that don't warrant a community alert or sketch of a suspect. About 10 percent of Roberts' cases involve women who are drug users or prostitutes whose lifestyles make their cases difficult to prosecute.
Cases in higher-crime areas usually don't draw as much attention from the media and law enforcement as violent crimes in neighborhoods most people view as safe, Roberts said.
Roberts said he doesn't want any less attention for cases such as the DePaul rape or other North Side assaults. He'd like to see more attention provided for all sex crimes.
"It should be done everywhere," Roberts said. "I'm not saying don't do it. Do it for every one."
Roberts said all victims of sex crimes deserve equal treatment, no matter the circumstances surrounding their assault.
"A victim's a victim. I don't care about gender, color or class," he said. "It doesn't matter if you're making a million dollars or you're on public assistance. If you're sexually assaulted, you're still going to have the same nightmares."
Roberts did have a "heater" last fall when police linked a series of home invasions and sexual assaults or attempted assaults to one man. Victims reported that a man wearing a black ski mask broke into their homes when they were alone and attacked them. Police issued an alert and later arrested 21-year-old Prince Richard. He has been charged with three counts of criminal sexual assault, five counts of home invasion and two counts of burglary, Roberts said. He currently is being held without bond, according to the Cook County Sheriff's department.
Roberts believes better use of DNA could help police catch more rapists or catch them earlier. If DNA was taken from suspects arrested for crimes such as burglary or home invasion and put into a databank, it could help identify perpetrators if they had committed a sexual assault, he said.
A bill that would require DNA samples from everyone arrested for a felony has been proposed several times by State Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago) but has stalled in Springfield.
"Serial rapists would be shut down pretty quickly," Mendoza said about the proposed DNA samples.
Activists want a faster response. Tenille Power, who runs sexual assault services at the YWCA Harris Center on the South Side, was angry about what she believed was a slow response from law enforcement to the South Side serial attacks in the fall.
Power believed other areas, such as Wrigleyville in late 2004, received a faster response when a series of rapes were reported.
"That type of response does not happen on the South Side of Chicago," Power said.
Power believes the community needs to speak up, and that people should not accept and expect violence just because they live in certain neighborhoods.
She'd like to see the community confront the issue of rape with education and discussion about ways to reduce it.
"We don't talk about rape," Power said. "We sweep it under the rug and move on."
