Rapes are up in New York City. Training on how to treat victims, way down.

US

Erinn Robinson with the advocacy group RAINN said many people were afraid to report during the pandemic, either because they were quarantining with the person who had harmed them or didn’t feel comfortable interacting with officers who might get them sick. She added that people were also socializing less, which reduced the chances of some assaults. FBI data show reported rapes dropped across the country, from 43.6 per 100,000 people in 2019 to 38.4 per 100,000 people in 2020.

But Robinson said many of the factors that prevented both attacks and reports have faded since the world has started to return to normal.

“I think it makes sense as people are interacting and going out again that either you might see instances of sexual violence, including rapes, increase,” she said.

Meanwhile, the NYPD is grappling with allegations that its sex crimes division is insensitive to survivors. The DOJ has received a sufficient number of complaints that it has launched an investigation to see if there is a pattern of gender bias within the unit.

Gina Tron said that reflects her experience. She told Gothamist she didn’t want to go to the police after she was sexually assaulted by a stranger she said she met at a Park Slope bar in 2010. She said she had been using drugs at the time and feared officers would judge her. But she was worried that the person who attacked her would do the same to someone else. So, she decided to report it.

“I walked into a police station, and they were actually really nice to me,” Tron said. “They were like, ‘You know, it doesn’t matter what you were doing. This shouldn’t have happened to you.’”

Tron was starting to feel more at ease, until she sat down with a detective from the NYPD’s special victims division, which investigates sex crimes.

“This guy just let out a sigh, a defeated sigh,” she said. “He’s like, ‘Ugh, what makes you think you got raped?’”

Tron said it felt like he didn’t even want to be there. She said he told her it was a weak case that wouldn’t go anywhere, because she had been doing drugs.

“He was really, kind of, encouraging me to drop it,” she said. “And I didn’t want to do that.”

Tron decided to move forward, anyway. But she felt like the police didn’t take her case seriously, and she said the case was eventually dropped.

The NYPD said it is prohibited from releasing the identity of sexual assault victims, though they added that it takes sexual assault and rape cases “extremely seriously.” The Brooklyn DA’s office said it could not comment on a closed case. Robinson with RAINN said it’s critical for officers to be sensitive when survivors decide to report those assaults, and to understand that they’ve experienced a trauma.

“That’s so important in encouraging the survivor to move forward with the criminal justice process, as well as their healing,” she said. “It can just be so integral into setting the tone for that survivor’s healing.”

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