Women’s Reporting of Sexual and Physical Assaults to Police in the National Violence Against Women Survey

Abstract

Previous research has assumed that rape reporting is unique, but no study has systematically tested this assumption. The present study used a probability sample of female victims from the National Violence Against Women Survey to compare factors affecting rape and physical assault reporting using multinomial logit regression. Overall, results suggested that there was similarity in reporting decisions between rapes and physical assaults in terms of main effects. However, interactions suggested that age, marital status, and physical force each influenced reporting differently by assault type. Implications of these results are discussed and directions for future research are offered.