Rape Reports and The Cosby Effect

While the number of reported rapes in New York City has increased, police say that doesn't necessarily reflect a greater number of crimes committed.

Overall crime in New York dropped to a historic low in 2015, making it the safest year ever. Yet the number of rapes reported increased six percent from the year before. Police officials say the apparent increase can be attributed to another phenomenon: the increasing willingness of rape victims from previous years to come forward.

Consider the numbers.

As of December 20, there were 1,392 incidents of rape reported to the NYPD. However, nearly 21 percent of these were for incidents that took place prior to 2015, said police spokesman Stephen Davis.

Compare that to previous years: In 2014, for instance, around 11 percent of the rape complaints related to incidents from earlier years. In 2012 and 2013, the corresponding figure was 6 percent. And in 2011, it was one percent.

Davis noted that some of these incidents are ten years old, or even thirty years old, but said victims are increasingly being encouraged to come forward, by advocacy groups, schools and the NYPD itself.

"We’ve been getting the word out, saying ‘Look, this is a crime, no matter when it happened. And we want to know about it,'" he said.

Gloria Allred, the attorney representing many of the women who've accused Bill Cosby of rape, said the same phenomena is happening nationally.

"There seems to be a trend with more and more women deciding that if they have been raped or sexually assaulted, that they will report it to law enforcement."

She said this includes young women on college campuses, as well as older women who are finally deciding to break their silence.

Zoe Ridolfi-Starr, the deputy director of Know Your IX, a national organization focused on campus sexual violence, many more students are coming forward with rape accusations (both recent and older), but are less willing to deal with the criminal justice system. 

“We hear from students often, students who are black, undocumented, gay or transgender, they actually feel extremely uncomfortable going to the police," she said.

According to Allred, the numerous accusations against Bill Cosby have had a major effect. Many of those alleged rapes took place decades ago.

"Even if it was too late because of the statute of limitations, the arbitrary time period set by law, for them to pursue their case in the criminal justice system, and in many cases too late to pursue it in the civil justice system, they felt they could speak out and they decided to do so."

In addition, efforts to eliminate the statute of limitations are taking place around the country. In California, a state senator plans to introduce legislation next month that would eliminate the statute. In Oregon, a new law doubling it from six to 12 years goes into effect on January 1. In New York, there is no statute of limitations for 1st degree rape, but for other categories, it's five years.