By Ashley Broughton
The Salt Lake Tribune
An estimated one in five adult women in Utah has been forcibly raped at least once during her lifetime, putting the state well above the national average, according to the results of a federal study.
The report and rankings from the Charleston, S.C.-based National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center put Utah No. 1 in the continental United States for its estimated percentage of rape victims -- 20.6 percent of the state's adult female population.
"Our findings clearly demonstrate the fact that Utah has a substantial rape problem," said the report from the research group, which was established and is partly funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"I was shocked to see this, too," said Jamee Roberts, executive director of the Salt Lake City-based Rape Recovery Center. "I knew we were bad; I had no idea we were this bad. We should be hanging our heads in shame."
The only state ahead of Utah was Alaska, where 20.9 percent of the state's female population are estimated to have been rape victims, according to the rankings.
And as high as those numbers are, Roberts said, they probably do not tell the whole story. The estimate is conservative, the report said, because it does not include women who have experienced attempted rape; alcohol- and drug-facilitated rapes, in which a victim is unconscious or impaired; or statutory rapes which lack any threat of force. In addition, the estimates do not account for Utah rape victims under the age of 18; male rape victims; or, Roberts said, victims of incest, which the research center considers child sexual abuse.
The report was released in May as part of an effort to break down rape statistics by state. It was based on adjusted data from the National Women's Study and the National Violence Against Women Survey. Both surveyed American women about victimization, one in 1989 and one in 1995.
The National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center determined geographic and demographic risk factors for women using data from the two surveys. Then, it found statistical estimates for age and race of women for Utah's geographical region and, using census data, adjusted the survey estimates to fit Utah's population as reported in the 2000 census.
Data from the two earlier studies showed about 13.4 percent of women nationally have been victims of completed forcible rape during their lifetime. Utah's percentage is 7.2 percent higher.
The percentage means an estimated 157,000 Utah women have been raped -- 64,000 in Salt Lake County, 26,000 in Utah County and 16,000 in Davis County.
Roberts said she has no doubt the numbers are solid. "These people [the CDC] are experts," she said. "They know how to compile data. This is not a joke. We can try to pretend this isn't reality, but the sad fact of the matter is, it is."
The report, she said, is a "wake-up call" for the state to provide more funding for public health and mental health services aimed at sexual assault victims. Utah currently provides no funding for rape counseling services, she said.
Research has shown that women with a history of rape are at a greater risk of mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression or suicidal ideations, the report said.
"People do not just bounce back from the trauma and cruelty that sexual predators choose to commit," Roberts said.
"We have been focused for so long on terrorist attacks abroad and nationally, but we have active terrorism happening in our own neighborhoods. There is a war on women and children in our communities, and we refuse to adequately address it."
Page Modified: July 12, 2003