Why women don't report sexual assault

Abstract

This study was designed to determine whether or not more women are reporting sexual assault, and whether or not previously noted theories about why women do not report continue to be valid. The study revealed that only 18% of the adult women's rapes and only 11% of the assaults of children were reported. For adult women, the primary reason for not reporting seemed to combine a type of guilt as well as embarrassment. The implication of this finding is that even as external social factors change, the internal psychological barriers to rape reporting may remain.