UK rape figures hide real toll of victims

WIRE:02/18/2000 05:35:00 ET

LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - As many as 295,000 women may be raped or suffer sexual assault in England and Wales every year, more than 10 times the figures recorded by police, the Home Office said on Friday.

It said official figures of 23,600 sexual attacks against women showed only a fraction of the picture because a quarter of cases reported to police were not recorded as crimes and most victims never went to the police in the first place.

The rape figures were published in an appendix to a lengthy Home Office report announcing seven million pounds of funds made available to groups campaigning to combat domestic violence and rape.

The report said 6,000 cases of rape were reported in 1996, plus a further 17,600 cases of indecent assault. But that was probably only a fraction of the true number, it said.

"It would be reasonably safe to assume that these figures should be increased by 33 percent to get the true figures for crimes reported to the police," the Home Office said.

"In addition, it is well known that rape and sexual assault are seriously under-reported crimes. Various studies have found that only betweeen 10 and 25 percent of women who report rape in self-report studies reported the offence to the police."

"It is possible to extrapolate from the recorded rape and sexual assault figures to provide an incidence figure for England and Wales of between 118,000 to 295,000," it said.

The Home Office funds announced this week aim to combat in particular domestic violence against women in the light of reports that rape by parental figures, husbands, boyfriends and former boyfriends was on the rise.

Acquaintance, or "date rapes," were also on the up, the Home Office said, citing a study which showed 11 percent of reported rapes in 1998 were carried out by strangers, 43 percent by "intimates," and 46 percent by acquaintances.

"Women have a right to live their lives without violence or fear of violence," said Minister for Women Margaret Jay. "It can have a devastating impact not only on the women themselves but on their families too."

"It is unacceptable that a quarter of women experience domestic violence at some stage in their lives and that many more women are so scared of rape or sexual assault that they are frightened to leave their homes," Jay said.