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Rapes are up in New York City. Training on how to treat victims, way down.
By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 24, 2022
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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 24, 2022
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The number of rape cases in New York City has surged since the height of the pandemic, and some advocates are concerned that the New York Police Department — currently the subject of a federal investigation into how it handles sex crimes — is not equipped to handle the new cases.
Reports of rape surged more than 60% in the fiscal year that ended in June, new city data shows. That spike followed a reduction in reported rapes at the height of the pandemic. But the current levels are higher even than they were pre-pandemic – a fact that advocates and law enforcement attribute to a range of factors, from more education about reporting to more socializing post-quarantine. Even with the surge, the numbers are likely an undercount, given that sexual assaults have historically been one of the most underreported crimes.
The reporting spike comes as the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the NYPD Special Victims Division on allegations of gender bias. When U.S. attorneys announced the probe over the summer, they said they had heard complaints dating back more than a decade, which accused the division of “failing to conduct basic investigative steps and instead shaming and abusing survivors and re-traumatizing them during investigations.”
City data also revealed that the number of hours the NYPD spent on trauma-informed training for sexual assault victims declined 89% in the last fiscal year, from 6,336 hours in fiscal year 2021 to 720 hours in fiscal year 2022. The department reportedly spent 833 hours on the training in fiscal year 2020 and none in fiscal year 2019.
The NYPD, which has promised to fully cooperate with the DOJ, said in a statement that the drop last fiscal year was due to a spike after the early days of the pandemic, when many investigators who joined the unit during that time were unable to receive their initial training. A spokesperson also said that the department is adopting a “victim-centric model” for its special victims division, which will encourage survivors to come forward when they’re ready and let them set the pace of the investigation.
A spokesperson said each of the department’s of sex crimes investigators go through an 18-day training course when they join the unit, along with yearly three-day refreshers. Those trainings include sessions on trauma.
The local spike in rape reports follows a national trend.
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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Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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