NYC Rapes Continue To Climb A Year Into #MeToo Movement

NEW YORK — The number of reported rapes in New York City continued to climb last month as the #MeToo movement approached its one-year mark, according to NYPD figures released Wednesday.

September marked the 13th straight month with a year-over-year increase in rapes, a trend police officials again attributed to increased reporting amid the advent of the nationwide movement to pull back the curtain on sexual violence and harassment.

There were 144 rapes reported to the NYPD in September — 22 percent more than in September 2017 — for a total of 1,348 this year as of Sept. 30, an increase of 28 percent from the same period last year. Almost a quarter of this September's rapes occurred before this year, said Chief of Crime Control Strategies Lori Pollock.

"In the last year we've seen a lot more reports," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference. "I think that is directly connected to the kind of conversation in our society acknowledging the horrible number of sexual assaults against women that have been tragically, inappropriately the norm for too long in this country."

The yearlong trend started around the time the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein was first accused of sexually assaulting and harassing several women. The #MeToo movement has revealed similar allegations against a host of powerful figures, including former state attorney general Eric Schneiderman.

The NYPD has in that time beefed up its Special Victims Division, adding more than 30 investigators earlier this year, Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said. The Police Department also launched a public campaign this spring encouraging survivors to tell police about what happens to them.

"It stops by people coming forward and giving the best police force in the country the ability to go after the perpetrators," said de Blasio, a Democrat. "We do not want them ever to harm another woman."

But the Police Department has also faced criticism of how it handles cases involving sexual violence. A Department of Investigation report in March revealed that the long-understaffed Special Victims Division, which handles sex crimes, gave more attention to so-called stranger rapes as it struggled with heavy caseloads.

The NYPD has defended its approach. Shea said each rape complaint is investigated "thoroughly" and according to the particular circumstances of each case.

"We have a victim-centric model that we've really been pushing," Shea said. "... For many, it's, they want to report it, they want to get it off their chest, but sometimes a prosecution is not what's sought."

The increase in rape reports came alongside a spike in murders. Police recorded 27 killings last month, three more than September 2017’s two dozen. That made for a total of 228 murders this year as of Sept. 30, an increase of 6 percent from the first nine months of last year.

The spike was driven by a big increase in springtime slayings — there were 92 murders in the second quarter of this year, up from 70 in the same period last year, NYPD figures show. The bulk of that increase occurred in the Bronx, which saw 20 more second-quarter killings than last year, Pollock said.

But the city is still on track to post "another record-setting year" for low crime despite the rise in those heinous offenses, Pollock said.

The overall number of the most serious crimes this year — murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto thefts — has dropped 1 percent from 2017 to 71,174, NYPD figures show.

Burglaries have decreased the most, falling 7 percent to 9,574 crimes as of Sept. 30, figures show. The number of shootings has also dropped nearly 5 percent so far this year even though 16 of last month's 27 murders were caused by guns, Pollock said.

De Blasio praised the NYPD for driving down crime while also reducing arrests by 12 percent compared to last year.

"What better way to reduce mass incarceration than to reduce unnecessary arrests," the mayor said.

(Lead image: Protesters rally against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court in Manhattan on Sept. 27, 2018. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)