An ASU graduate student is hoping her examination of Tempe sexual assault data might shed some light on acquaintance rape.
Mary Anders, a strategic and administrative crime analyst with the Tempe Police Department's Crime Analysis Unit, will be coding sexual assaults beginning next semester that have occurred in Tempe since 1998.
Anders is conducting her "Victims of Intimate Crime Examination Study" in an effort to better understand why some cases of rape go unreported.
Anders said acquaintance rapes, which occur when the victim knows the suspect, are different from predatory rapes in which the victim and suspect don't know each other.
Anders said the study would assess factors that may relate to victims' willingness to aid in the prosecution of their case.
"Typically what is focused on [in crime analysis] is predatory or stereotypical rapes, " she said.
Anders, who is conducting the study for her doctoral dissertation in Family and Human Development, said research has been limited in the area.
"We are not doing this study to confirm what is known; this is uncharted territory," she added.
Victims of acquaintance rape do not report the sexual assault as often, Anders added, and they are also more likely to withdraw from the prosecution process before the case goes to court.
Tempe police crime prevention unit supervisor Sgt. Jon Waide said roughly 80 percent of all sexual assaults in the United States involve either a known acquaintance or someone the victim has had contact with.
The Tempe Crime Prevention Unit schedules classes on request to help empower individuals to avoid situations that might lead to a rape, Waide said.
"It's common sense," he added. "You really need to know someone's background before you should consider the types of behavior you would like to enter into with them."
Setting clear boundaries is also a key way to limit the risk of sexual assault, Waide said.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a forcible rape occurs every 5.6 minutes in the nation.
Last year, there were 33 reported rapes per 1,000 people in Arizona according to the Justice Department.
But the statistics cannot measure the crimes that go unreported.
Waide said victims of sexual assault might feel added pressure to not report the crime if they know the suspect.
Tempe police Sgt. Dan Masters said the crime is clearly underreported.
The study is expected to span the next two semesters and will be made available to Tempe police for reference.
Anders said she's hoping several ASU students will assist in producing a detailed coding of the crime reports.
"In addition to earning upper division credit, it is a great opportunity for students to get skills employers are looking for," she added.
Anders said she would also like to make the trends and findings of the study available to the public.
Masters stressed that it is easier for people to connect with victims if there is a human face on the crime.
"People just can't identify with statistics and numbers as well as someone's personal story," he said. "It is one of those crimes where the victims have lost something for the rest of their lives."
Reach the reporter at mark.saxon@asu.com.
