10 percent of sexual assault reports in Rockford end in arrest

Jan. 06--ROCKFORD -- The decision to report a sex crime can be difficult and painful for survivors. What's more, the process that follows can truly frustrate victims and law enforcement alike.

Victims often struggle with the decision to relive their suffering in an attempt to seek justice. Police and prosecutors struggle to piece together provable cases, knowing that physical evidence and sometimes even testimony from victims can be difficult to obtain. In the end, many cases simply fall through the cracks, ending in a stack of crime reports from which no conclusions were reached.

Authorities here say sexual assault remains one of the most difficult crimes to prove. The result, according to data gathered by the Register Star through Freedom of Information Act requests, is that just a fraction of reports of sexual assault end in an arrest. And those figures only account for when police are called; national studies have long shown that sexual assault is vastly underreported.

In the five-year span from 2012 to 2016, just 10 percent of sexual assault and abuse reports in Rockford ended in arrests. Across Winnebago County, the figure is about 11 percent, records obtained by the Register Star show.

An arrest depends on two major factors: victim cooperation and physical evidence, police say. But police know survivors aren't always willing to see a case through, and they don't push someone to cooperate if they're not comfortable doing so.

"A lot of times the adult victims will just go to the hospital looking for medical care and don't want law enforcement involvement," said Deputy Chief Mike Schultz, who has supervised the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department detective bureau since 2014. "At that point we'll try to investigate, but we're not going to traumatize the victim more by forcing the victim to cooperate."

Underreported

Sexual assault is one of the country's most pervasive and underreported crimes. One in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Few go to police, often fearing retaliation or desiring to remain anonymous, said Paula Peterson, legal advocate for Rockford Sexual Assault Counseling. Sixty-three percent of sexual assaults are not reported to police and only 12 percent of child sexual abuse is reported to authorities, according to the resource center.

There were 1,257 reports of sexual assault in Rockford from 2012 to 2016, a number advocates say would be much higher if all such crimes were reported.

"An immediate outcry isn't exactly what happens, even though it often seems that's what the system expects," Peterson said. "Often, (victims) know the perpetrator somehow and have fear of retaliation or want to remain anonymous, and once there's a court record they would be appearing in court at some point."

Peterson works with victims age 17 and older to help walk them through the legal process if they choose to press charges.

"As investigators, we understand why adult victims don't report these crimes, and we're sympathetic to that," said Rockford police Lt. Kurt Whisenand, who has spent most of his 18 years on the police force in the sensitive crimes unit. "We understand that only a small percentage come to us."

Schultz said victims sometimes cooperate with the initial report, but then choose not to aid in the full investigation.

"Ultimately, whoever is working sex cases understands that the victim's sensitivity is the most important part," Schultz said. "The victim, or survivor, is the one who has got to deal with the trauma of the incident for the rest of their life, and we don't want to add to that."

Burden of proof

It's up to prosecutors to decide whether to authorize charges against the accused, and Winnebago County State's Attorney Joe Bruscato says he only does so when he's confident the case can be proven in court.

Bruscato's office closed 163 cases during the five-year span ending in 2016. Guilty convictions were obtained 91 percent of the time, records obtained by the Register Star show.

"I recognize that the level of proof necessary to charge a case versus ultimately proving a case in court is different," Bruscato said. "Sexual assault victims are so vulnerable that when you do make the decision to charge a case, you want to know that case has the best opportunity to succeed in court."

Sexual assault is a difficult crime to prove because whether there was consent is often known only to two people.

"It is unfortunately too easy for a suspect to claim consent or some other defense that casts doubt on the victim's credibility," Whisenand said. "The tendency to victim bash or attack their credibility is unfortunately too easy for a suspect to do.

"Unfortunately, there's no way to streamline the criminal justice system for one type of crime to make that better."

Waiting to hear whether charges will be filed is difficult for victims, who again must surrender control, this time to law enforcement in the hope that justice will be served.

"It's a misnomer that I as a victim have a choice if we're going to prosecute," said Maureen Mostacci, executive director of Rockford Sexual Assault Counseling. "I can choose to report my assault as a survivor, but that's part of what makes it so difficult, because it's another time they have no control. They had no control during the assault and no control in the prosecution."

Even with a cooperative victim and physical evidence, Bruscato said there still isn't always enough to prosecute. In those cases, prosecutors are willing to explain the decision to victims in person.

"I want to make sure the victims understand: Do not draw the conclusion that you aren't being understood, you're not being believed, you're not being heard; that is not the case," Bruscato said.

Legislation and prevention

Illinois has adopted new laws intended to support victims of sexual assault. In August, the statute of limitations for child victims was eliminated, allowing prosecutors to pursue cases more than 20 years after the victim turns 18. Adults face a three-year statute of limitations to report an assault.

In addition, the Illinois General Assembly passed a law in 2016 requiring all sexual assault kits to be tested, regardless of whether there is a suspect at the time of the initial report.

"Contrast that with the past, where a law enforcement agency might have by protocol waited to send a kit to the crime lab until we had a suspect," Bruscato said. "Now we test because of the high development of things like DNA. Much like fingerprints, we have a database of DNA samples."

Still, obtaining an arrest is difficult. To that end, victim advocates and law enforcement authorities say the key to prevention is education.

"When you're teaching (kids), specifically young men and boys, there are all sorts of slogans out there about 'no means no,' but I always tell them, only yes means yes," Whisenand said.

Mostacci also said young men and women need role models. In 2016, Rockford Sexual Assault Counseling conducted more than 900 hours of education in area schools, as well as anti-bullying programs, anti-sexual harassment programs and self-defense classes for teens.

"Now we're hearing men step up and say, 'This is not OK,' and those voices are very important in getting that message out and modeling good behavior for the next generation," Mostacci said. "It's going to start changing the way we think and feel about sexual assault as a society."

Kayli Plotner: kayliplotner@gmail.com @kayplot

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