According to the Joint Intelligence Coordinating Center (Belize) there were 50 cases of rape reported in 2003, with 36 arrests. In 2004 there were 53 cases of rape reported, with 44 arrests.
Since the sensational case(s) involving UB women, and the policeman who was sent to jail for forcibly having sex with a girl who had gone to a room with him, there have been few, if any, reported cases of rape of this type. There is a fairly steady diet of men having sex with old lovers/wives against their will, but none? of the more heinous attacks on strangers, children, and dates. The Joint Intelligence Coordinating Center’s statistics bear out that the number of rape cases has gone down. Whoa!!!!! Halt! Discard!!
I have this sense that rapes have gone down in Belize. I had these old statistics (2003-04 above), and my intent was to discuss (if the recent statistics bear out what I sensed) the possible explanations why this heinous crime had been slowed. Was it the massive education programs that had brought about this change? Was it the incredible Mike Tyson case that had brought fear to crazy males and changed their behavior? Were women going to greater lengths, especially on dates, to avoid dangerous situations because of the fear of HIV? Has there been a change in all of us because of fears of HIV?
To support my article, I did some research on the net, from foreign. The news coming out of the USA is stunning! I thought that it would have been a simple exercise to gather the numbers I needed, from the Police Department, and complete this article.
Brother! Sister! Can you believe that I have to write to the Commissioner of Police to beg him permission to look in his numbers book one of these good old days? Guarding crime statistics as if they were crown jewels: to what purpose, Braa? At first I disbelieved, thought someone in the Police Department was not feeling well. So, I went from Belmopan police, to Eastern Division, to Racoon Street, and back to BMP. Dammit, welcome to crime statistics bureau, the private domain of the Commish and G. Michael Reid.
This article will have to be completed some day. When I have swallowed, I will write the Commissioner of the Belize Police Force. I hope the trend is as downward as it seems. Until then, a few words from foreign on the good news over there.
Washington Post Staff Writer, David A. Fahrenthold, wrote on June 19, 2006, in an article titled Statistics Show Drop In US Rape Cases, that “the number of rapes per capita in the United States has plunged by more than 85 percent since the 1970’s, and reported rape fell last year even while other violent offenses increased, according to federal crime data.” Fahrenthold reported that the “stunning reduction in sexual violence has been so consistent over the past two decades that some experts say they have started to believe it is accurate…” The report states that in 1979 their Justice Department cited 2.8 rape cases per one thousand people, while in 2004 that number had dropped to 0.4 per thousand.
On June 19, 2001, Mark Fazlollah, a contributor to Women Enews, reported that government (US) statistics showed rape cases dropped from 141,070 in 1999, to 92,440 in 2000.
The article, titled Experts Question Accuracy of New Rape Statistics, goes on to discuss the opinions of women who disagree with the statistics. I hope to share some of their opinions with you, after I have sufficiently recovered from my run into a police-set stonewall.