cRIME
Crimes that disproportionately affect women include sexual violence—rape—and domestic violence. According to the 2016 National Crime Victimization Survey, it is estimated that only one in four rapes and sexual assaults (23.2%) were reported to the police, which makes the interpretation of data more challenging.
Significant findings of this data include:
Rape arrests in 2017 for Kenosha County (14.3%) and Racine County (31.7%) are lower than for the state of Wisconsin as a whole (43.7%). In 2017, 50 Kenosha County and 54 Racine County women and were documented as victims of rape (see full report). Racially, most rape victims and offenders were white; however black people were disproportionately represented as victims and offenders of rape from 2013 to 2017 comparative to the black populations of Kenosha County and Racine County.
The perpetrators of rape in 2017 were exclusively male in Kenosha County and Racine County (one reported rape involved a female), with most offenders in their mid-thirties (30-39 years old), who knew their victims but were not related (e.g., acquaintance, employee/employer, neighbor).
Peterson and her colleagues (2017) computed that the prevention of one female rape equates to an estimated lifetime social cost savings of $122,278 ($124,631 for males) after accounting for the criminal justice activities, lost work productivity, medical costs, among other costs.
Data Interpretation
Arrests for rape in Kenosha County and Racine County are consistently lower than for the state of Wisconsin.
Most common age group of a rape offender (2017)
- Kenosha County: Thirties (30-39 years old)
- Racine County: Thirties (30-39 years old)
- Wisconsin: Young adult (18-22 years old)
Most rape offenders knew their victim (not family-related; e.g., acquaintance, employee/employer, neighbor) (2017)
- Kenosha County (58.82%)
- Racine County (59.26%)
- Wisconsin (54.22%)
Most rape offenders were male and white; however, blacks were disproportionately represented as offenders of rape from 2013 to 2017.
Data Source
Arrests for Rape: Wisconsin Department to Justice. (2019). Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) arrest data. Retrieved from https://www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/bjia/ucr-arrest-data
*Statistics for 2017 are not strictly comparable to earlier years. In 2013-2016, the number of rapes and the rate were for females only, while in 2017 the number and rate were for both males and females.
Data Interpretation
Underestimations occur within the rape offenses Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data due to the hierarchy rule; thus, only the most severe offense in an incident is reported. The sex offenses National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data does not adhere to the hierarchy rule: Kenosha County consistently reported higher sex offenses per 100,000 persons; however, the data for Racine County and Wisconsin are more closely aligned.
Data Source
Sex Offenses: Wisconsin Department to Justice. (2019). Uniform Crime Reporting sex offense data. Retrieved from https://www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/bjia/ucr-sex-offense-data
*Includes sodomy/oral sex and sexual assault w/object, and excludes fondling, incest, and statutory rape so that comparisons can be made to the UCR offenses while acknowledging that hierarchy rule. For instance, there are 15 sex offenses accounted for by NIBRS in 2017 that are not accounted in the UCR rape offenses, suggesting 15 incidences of a person being a victim of a combination of rape/sodomy/oral sex/sexual with an object, which the UCR counts as one collective incident.
Data Interpretation
From 2013 to 2016, Kenosha County consistently had the highest rape offenses per 100,000 persons with females as the victims, followed by Wisconsin, and Racine County. In 2017, rape offenses with females as the victims became more pronounced for Racine County, followed by Kenosha County, and Wisconsin.
Most rape victims were female and white; however, blacks were disproportionately represented as victims of rape from 2013 to 2017.
Whereas the most common age group of rape victims in Kenosha County were young adults (18-22 years old), the most common age group of rape victims in Racine County were in their late teens (15-17 years old). Most reported rapes in 2017 occurred at a residence/home (Kenosha County [80.4%], Racine County [79.6%]) and frequently involved no weapons (Kenosha County [96.1%], Racine County [37.0].
Data Source
Female Rape Victims (same as "Sex Offenses"): Wisconsin Department to Justice. (2019). UCR sex offense data. Retrieved from https://www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/bjia/ucr-sex-offense-data