Kudos to Larkin for probe on sex assault

The word “unfounded” is a bit loaded, don’t you think?

It’s used by police to describe a case when someone claims a crime happened, but the investigators don’t agree it did. Sex assault is a type of crime that’s especially vulnerable to being shrugged off in this way.

Sex assaults often happen when there’s no one around except attacker and victim. Maybe they’re in a car, or in a bed. Maybe one or both of them is drunk or high.

Because there often are no witnesses, these kinds of attacks are difficult to prosecute in criminal courts. If it’s his word against yours, too bad for you.

A study by the Globe and Mail newspaper has found that, across the country, 19 per cent of sexual assaults that are reported to police are dismissed in this way. Yet for other kinds of assault the “unfounded” rate is just 11 per cent.

Percentages vary widely across the country. Winnipeg has just two per cent “unfounded” sex assault cases, Toronto has seven per cent and Vancouver, 12 per cent.

In other parts of the country the complaints are much more likely to be brushed off. The Region of Waterloo is at 27 per cent. Hamilton and London are at 30 per cent. Saint John, N.B., is at 51 per cent.

It’s unlikely there are far more liars in Saint John than there are in Winnipeg. Rather, the wide disparity of “unfounded” sex assault crimes from place to place probably reflects differences in the way police do things and in the way they have been trained.

One clue is the very use of the word “unfounded,” when “insufficient evidence to proceed” would describe the same thing without blaming the victim.

Of course some people lie about having been sexually assaulted. But experts say it’s unusual — fewer than eight per cent of complainants.

In Philadelphia, information emerged almost 20 years ago that police were in the habit of belittling rape victims and filing their complaints under a non-criminal code. This ensured there wouldn’t be followup.

But after this information became public, and residents of the city were horrified, policing in that city has been transformed.

There’s now an external oversight committee that independently reviews police handling of allegations of sex assault. Only about 10 per cent of cases in Philadelphia are considered “unfounded” now. In the bad old days, they were nearly twice that high.

For his part, Waterloo Region Police Chief Bryan Larkin deserves credit for vowing that local authorities will get to the bottom of Waterloo Region’s high numbers.

Larkin calls the local statistics “alarming.” He said most people who are sexually assaulted never

contact police in the first place.

Larkin vowed there will be a review of previous sexual assault cases deemed unfounded. He will connect with other police services nationwide. And a task force will be launched to rethink how Waterloo police approach sexual assault.

Included in the task force will be people like Sara Casselman, executive director of the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region.

“It’s really encouraging” that police leaders are taking this issue so seriously, she said.

Indeed, it would be a huge step forward if victims felt they were being heard seriously. We know it can be done. We only need the political will to make it happen.