Rape Reporting as a Function of Victim-Offender Relationship:

Abstract

Bachman (1993), studying a National Crime Survey sample between 1987 and 1990, concluded that rape survivors were not more likely to report to the police if the victimization was perpetrated by a stranger, and she suggested that because of recent legal reforms and media campaigns “particularly victims of date and acquaintance rape... may be no longer as hesitant to report a rape as they once were” (p. 265). It is argued here that the study provided no evidence for this contention, especially with respect to date rape, for the following reasons: (a) There is some question as to whether or not the analysis should have concluded that the relationship between reporting and knowing the offender was significant; (b) even if considered nonsignificant, the interpretation of the result was inappropriate in terms of both the classical logic of hypothesis testing and more recent discussions of the use of significance tests; (c) there was no evidence of a change over time; and (d) the composition of the sample was not sufficiently representative of all types of victim-offender relationship for inferences, particularly about attacks on dates, to be drawn. Given the likely composition of the sample, it would be expected to produce a weak effect of acquaintance, which is exactly what it did.