Washington, September 15: There were 88,097 rapes in the United States in 2009 alone, according to FBI statistics, but the crime remains one of the least reported and prosecuted, witnesses have told US lawmakers.
“It’s widely recognised that rape is one of the most underreported offences in the United States with empirical studies estimating that merely 15-20 percent of cases are reported to the police,” Michelle Dempsey, a professor at Villanova University School of Law told senators yesterday.
Roughly one in six women in the United States will experience sexual aggression during their lifetime and half of the victims were younger than 18 at the time of the assault, an investigation presented to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee said.
Only five per cent of rapists are convicted and only three per cent are imprisoned, Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, told the committee.
–PTI