A young woman went to a hospital last week to be treated after she suffered a sexual assault in Hato Rey, but she refused to file a complaint when the emergency room called the police.
In another case that occurred in Parque del Indio, in the County, a man reported to the authorities that he had been sexually assaulted a week ago by another male. The victim was summoned twice to the Sex Crimes Division of the Criminal Investigation Corps (CIC) of San Juan, to initiate the investigation, but never showed up to the appointments.
Both cases reflect a pattern, and the authorities do not have in their statistical measurements the victims who do not want their cases to be investigated, even though there is an increase of 29.66% in the cases of rape that occurred between January 1 and 23 October 2021, compared to that period in 2020.
The statistics offered by the Police of these Type I crimes add up to 162 complaints, an increase of 37 cases compared to last year. In San Juan, 29 of the complaints have been reported, an increase of 15; Carolina accumulates 24, an increase of one; Bayamón has 22, an increase of 7 and Arecibo has 15, an increase of 2.
In 2020, the Police Bureau handled 704 cases of sexual crimes of all kinds, of which 586 of the victims were women and 105 men, according to the data provided. Of that total number of cases attended, the Police website reflects that there were 74 arrests and criminal charges were only filed in 45 of the complaints.
Captain Luis Díaz Muñoz, director of the CIC of San Juan – the jurisdiction where there are more cases of reported rapes – pointed out that the agents trained and assigned to a unit specialized in sexual crimes, use all the resources to convince the victims that can take the case.
During October, the San Juan CIC filed charges and arrested the perpetrators of two cases. One of them is a Santurce neighbor who allegedly sexually assaulted a young woman on the Condado beach. The other defendant was arrested Thursday in Río Piedras, accused of raping his 25-year-old daughter. Both were summoned to jail for failing to provide bail.
Díaz Muñoz urged the victims to trust the investigators and assured that these professionals treat the cases with sensitivity, ensuring the safety of the plaintiffs, the majority of whom are women.
Police statistics account for a tiny part of sexual crimes against adults and children in the country. They admit that the lack of data does not mean that the cases are not being committed.
On June 24, 2019, the then representative María Milagros Charbonier filed a resolution in the House of Representatives to order that the Legal Commission carry out a comprehensive study and analysis of the administration, functioning and operation of the Sexual Crimes Division. and Mistreatment of Minors of the Police Bureau of the Department of Public Security, in order to verify compliance with the established norms and procedures.
She points out the resolution that “according to estimates from the Center for Disease Control of the Federal Department of Health, only 16% of cases of sexual violence are reported to the authorities. In Puerto Rico, the registration of statistics on crimes of rape of a sexual nature has been indicated as incongruous, since the existence of irreconcilable differences between the statistics compiled by the Departments of Family and Health, and those registered by the the Police Bureau of the Department of Public Safety. However, the Department of Health assures that around 66,000 cases of sexual violence occur annually on the Island ”.
