RAPE REPORTING AS A FUNCTION OF VICTIM-OFFENDER RELATIONSHIP - A CRITIQUE OF THE LACK OF EFFECT REPORTED BY BACHMAN (1993)

Bachman (1993), studying a National Crime Survey sample between 1987 a nd 1990, concluded that rape survivors were not more likely to report to the police if the victimization was perpetrated by a stranger, and she suggested that because of recent legal reforms and media campaigns ''particularly victims of date and acquaintance rape...may be no long er as hesitant to report a rape as they once were'' (p. 265). It is ar gued here that the study provided no evidence for this contention, esp ecially with respect to date rape, for the following reasons: (a) Ther e is some question as to whether or not the analysis should have concl uded that the relationship between reporting and knowing the offender was significant; (b) even if considered nonsignificant, the interpreta tion of the result was inappropriate in terms of both the classical lo gic of hypothesis testing and more recent discussions of the use of si gnificance tests; (c) there was no evidence of a change over time; and (d) the composition of the sample was not sufficiently representative of all types of victim-offender relationship for inferences, particul arly about attacks on dates, to be drawn. Given the likely composition of the sample, it would be expected to produce a weak effect of acqua intance, which is exactly what it did.