Number Of Rapes In NYC Hits A Grim Milestone

NEW YORK, NY — The number of rapes in New York City hit an unfortunate milestone last month, NYPD figures show. Police recorded 181 rapes, the highest number for the month of May in 16 years, a top police official said.

The figure reflects a nearly 50 percent increase from the 121 rapes reported in May 2017.

"More people are coming forward to report rapes that are happening this year and previous years," said Lori Pollock, the NYPD's chief of crime control strategies.

May marked the ninth straight month with an increase in rapes compared to the prior year. Police officials have attributed past spikes to the #MeToo movement, which has prompted many survivors to report incidents that happened years ago.

But 146 of last month's reported rapes — about 80 percent — happened this year, while just 35 happened in previous years, Pollock said. About half those older rapes occurred in 2017 and 12 happened more than five years ago.

Police Commissioner James O'Neill attributed the recent uptick to the NYPD's efforts to encourage reporting among rape and sexual assault survivors.

The department launched an ad campaign in April touting the good that can come from bringing vastly underreported sex crimes to the police.

That came amid scrutiny of how the NYPD handles those cases and staffs the Special Victims Division, which investigates many of them. Police officials recently added 20 investigators to the division, O'Neill said.

"We've done a lot of work with the advocacy groups to make sure that survivors of sexual assault feel comfortable in coming to the police and report these crimes," O'Neill said.

The spike in rapes came alongside increases in other violent crimes.

The number of the most serious crimes — murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft — increased to 8,222 last month from from 8,161 in May 2017.

There were 34 murders, up from 26 a year ago, driven by a streak of killing in Brooklyn in the first half of the month, Pollock said. Nineteen of last month's slayings occurred behind closed doors, she said, crimes that are harder to prevent.

There were 77 shootings in May, 10 more than last year. There were 1,886 felony assaults, an increase of about 3 percent, and 455 car thefts, about a 5 percent spike.

Police officials said they recalibrated their efforts in the second half of the month to address trouble spots as they went up historic lows in crime from last year. Major crimes are still down this year as of May 31 compared to the first five months of last year.

"As we experience upticks from time to time — and we do, because nothing is ever guaranteed or promised to us we know that we have the tools to re-evaluate and address the root causes," O'Neill said.

(Lead image: Photo by Tupungato/Shutterstock)