LAYTON -- Social service advocates argue the numbers need notice: one in three Utah women will experience some type of sexual assault in her lifetime, and one in eight will be raped.
"Sexual violence is a crime of power and control. It has nothing to do with how someone dresses or acts," said Alana Kindness, of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a Salt Lake City-based organization that serves all of Utah.
Kindness believes sexual assaults are highly underreported to law enforcement by Utah victims, and she supports increasing awareness of the issue.
So, as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Kindness and the Utah Department of Health put together numbers that highlight the problem.
Among the Northern Utah highlights from UDOH:
* Davis County ranked among the top three Utah counties for calls placed to a statewide sexual-assault hot line from 2003 to 2008.
* Weber, Carbon, Salt Lake, Tooele and Uintah counties had higher reported rates of rape than the state rate from 2002 to 2008.
The data from UDOH and Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice indicate that sexual assaults are rarely committed by strangers.
Only 13.3 percent of victims report being victimized by a stranger.
The numbers also point to assaults most often being committed by a family member (30.9 percent), intimate partner, such as a spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend (20.8 percent), or friend (14.3 percent); and assaults by neighbors (9.9 percent), baby sitters (2.2 percent), and coworkers (1.8 percent) the less-frequently committed.
The UDOH established a toll-free sexual-assault hotline in 1998, the first crisis line of its kind in the Intermountain West.
Open 24 hours a day, every day, attendants route calls from all over the state to one of 12 rape crisis programs.
From 2003-2008, the hotline received more than 2,800 calls -- an average of 467 each year. The numbers do not include calls made directly to the rape crisis programs.
Kindness, who has spent more than a decade helping victims, said there are some bright spots among local service programs in such places as Logan, Brigham City and Ogden.
"There are some really terrific resources and programs that are working in Northern Utah," said Kindness.
Help is available for victims of sexual assault by calling the toll-free 24-hour Rape and Sexual Assault Crisis and Information Hot Line at (888) 421-1100.
Updated 12:14 a.m.
Sexual assault crimes high in Weber, Davis County
LAYTON -- Social service advocates argue the numbers need notice: that one in three Utah women will experience some type of sexual assault in their lifetime and that one in eight will be raped.
"Sexual violence is a crime of power and control. It has nothing to do with how someone dresses or acts," said Alana Kindness of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a Salt Lake City based organization that serves all of Utah.
Kindness believes that sexual assaults are highly under reported to law enforcement by Utah victims and she supports increasing awareness of the issue.
So, as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Kindness and the Utah Department of Health put together numbers that highlight the problem.
Among the Northern Utah highlights from UDOH:
* Davis County ranked among the top 3 Utah counties for calls placed to a statewide sexual assault hot line from 2003-2008.
* Weber, Carbon, Salt Lake, Tooele, and Uintah counties had higher reported rates of rape than the state rate from 2002-2008.
Data from the UDOH and Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice indicate that sexual assaults are rarely committed by strangers. Only 13.3 percent of victims report being victimized by a stranger. Most often, the assault is committed by a family member (30.9 percent), intimate partner such as a spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend (20.8 percent), a friend (14.3 percent), a neighbor (9.9 percent), a baby sitter (2.2 percent), or a coworker (1.8 percent).
Comments