1997 Rape

Forcible Rape, as defined by the Uniform Crime Reporting Program is the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Attempts to commit rape by force or threat of force, and assaults with the intent to commit rape, are also included; however, statutory rape (without force) and other sex offenses are excluded.

The Cambridge Police Department's Sexual Assault Unit reports that 16 rapes and eight attempted rapes were reported in Cambridge in 1997. This represents a 29 percent decrease from 1996. In 15 of the 24 incidents (11 rapes, 4 attempts), the victim knew her assailant; the other nine (5 rapes, 4 attempts) involved strangers. The Sexual Assault Unit reports that 15 of the cases have been cleared by arrest or indictment.

	Acq.	Blitz	Cont.	Dom.	Total
Complete	7	3	2	4	16
Attempt	4	3	1	0	8
Total	11	6	3	4	24

Acquaintance Rapes are non-domestic rapes committed by someone who knows the victim. They include rapes of co-workers, schoolmates, friends, and other acquaintances, including "date rapes."

Blitz Rapes are stranger rapes in which the rapist assaults the victim on the street with no prior contact. Generally, the suspect "comes out of nowhere."

Contact Rapes are stranger rapes in which the suspect contacts the victim and tries to gain her confidence before assaulting her. Contact rapists pick up their victims in bars, lure them into their cars or houses, or otherwise try to coerce the victim into a situation in which they can begin their assault.

Domestic Rapes involve rapes between spouses, romantic partners, and family members.

A fifth rape categorization, the Home Invasion Rape, did not cover any of the reported rapes in 1997.

The 1997 rape total of 24 was the lowest number recorded by this department since at least 1973 (we have no information on rapes prior to 1973). We hesitate to call this a trend, however, given the tendency of rape statistics to fluctuate greatly from year to year (see the graph on the previous page). The number of rapes that go unreported each year is uncertain; experts estimate that as high as 50 percent of domestic and acquaintance rapes are not reported by the victim.

Of the four categorizations reported in 1997, the Blitz rape, or "street rape," is the classification that probably provokes the most fear in the average citizen. Six of these-three rapes and three attempts-were reported in 1997. The pinmap of Blitz Rapes in 1997 shows a cluster of four around Central Square. Though the investigations for three of the Central Square incidents are ongoing, the Sexual Assault Unit has ruled out the possibility that a single suspect has committed more than one Blitz Rape.

Analysis of the Blitz Rapes reported in Cambridge over the past several years shows a trend of early morning (12:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.) weekend occurrences. In past years, as in 1997, clusters of these stranger rapes have appeared around Central Square, despite extra patrol allocation. The Cambridge Police Department is developing strategies to address this persisting trend.

In 1996*, cities between 90,000 and 105,000 reported an average of 37 rapes per 100,000 residents. Cambridge reported 35 per 100,000 residents, just below the national average. The highest reporting city was Wichita Falls, TX, with 80 rapes per 100,000 people; the city with the lowest rate was Greece Town, NY with 12 .

The FBI reported a 1.7 percent decrease in reported rape across the nation between 1995 and 1996. Nationally, the crime has gone down 15.7 percent since 1992. Like the Cambridge Police Department, the FBI cautions that a significant portion of rapes go unrecorded, making the validity of the statistics uncertain.

Locally, cities with populations that approximate Cambridge reported an average of 36 rapes per 100,000 residents, just slightly above Cambridge's total. These cities include Brockton (43 per 1,000), Fall River (32), Lowell (44), Lynn (29), New Bedford (72), Newton (7), and Quincy (29). Towns surrounding Cambridge reported a combined total of 11 rapes.