Sexual assaults are one of the least reported crimes to police, but according to data released on Monday by Statistics Canada, the tide may be changing.
“More survivors understand what sexual assault actually is, so they’re able to identify they were assaulted and then understand that there’s now some recourse for them whether that be police or services like us,” Saskatoon Sexual Assault Centre executive director Faye Davis said. “They’re more open to reaching out.”
Nationally, reported sexual assaults increased 13 per cent in 2017 to 28,551 incidents; it’s the second consecutive year the country has seen an increase. In its report, Statistics Canada noted the jump in sexual assaults was one of the major reasons Canada’s crime severity index increased two per cent last year.
In 2017, 14 per cent of reported sexual assaults in Canada were deemed unfounded, which is down from 19 per cent in 2016. Statistics Canada said more severe or violent sexual assaults are less likely to be classified as unfounded, more than incidents like unwanted touching.
“We still know that between four and 10 per cent of people who are sexually assaulted actually report it to police,” Davis said. “So it’s a really poor reflection of the actual size of the problem in Canadian society.”
In Saskatchewan, sexual assaults declined five per cent from 2016. Saskatoon’s rate remained relatively unchanged between 2016 and 2017, but Regina saw an increase of seven per cent.
“The MeToo movement I would say is an important part of that because it’s shown a solidarity in not just Canada but the world that this is not OK,” Regina police Chief Evan Bray said.
Police forces have also been making significant changes, responding to the scrutiny from the public arising from reports that one in five sexual assaults reported to police in Saskatchewan were filed as unfounded.
In Regina, police are working on new training for officers dealing with sexual assault complainants, and are changing the environment to a more welcoming location where people can report these assaults to police.
In Saskatoon, police created a new classification for sexual assaults since 284 of the over 1,800 reported sexual assaults in the city since 2011 were deemed unfounded. Saskatoon police found that a sexual assault may have happened in 17 per cent of those 284 unfounded cases. The “founded but unsubstantiated” classification is now used when police believe a sexual assault happened but there isn’t sufficient evidence to lay a charge.
“We know that sexual assaults for the most part are under-recorded and we didn’t want to contribute to that under reporting,” Saskatoon police Chief Troy Cooper said. “We didn’t want to be a barrier for people who came in to report to police thinking they weren’t believed.”
At the Saskatoon Sexual Assault Centre, they’ve seen between 15 and 20 per cent more clients through their doors every year for the past three years; there’s hope more resources will be developed and provided to survivors and existing organizations to help ease the impact of reporting an assault to police, followed by the ensuing legal process.
“My guess would be in 2018, we’re going to see an increase, and we’re certainly seeing it,” Davis said.
The report released on Monday was one of the first times Statistics Canada used data to show how many cases went “unfounded” across the country.
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