Half of Crime Victims Knew Perpetrators

Half the offenders in 20 million cases of rape, robbery and assault committed from 1982 through 1984 were known to their victims, according to a study released Sunday by the Justice Department.

The department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics determined that overall, 46% of the crimes were committed by total strangers, 31% by friends and acquaintances, 8% by relatives and 11% by people known to the victims on sight. The remaining 4% could not be classified.

The data was amassed by the bureau during a twice-yearly survey of 123,000 individuals in 58,000 households.

Most in Robberies Strangers

The survey estimated that 75% of approximately 1 million robberies in 1984 were committed by strangers to the victims, while 17% were by acquaintances and 4% by relatives.

The ratios were almost reversed in the case of murder. Although its own survey excluded homicide, the report cited the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports for 1984, which showed that 18% of 19,000 murders were known to have been committed by strangers, 39% by acquaintances, 18% by relatives and 26% by individuals whose relationship was not known.

Steven R. Schlesinger, director of the bureau, suggested that the proportion of perpetrators known to victims may be higher than the survey indicated.

“Individuals victimized by relatives may be reluctant to discuss the event, especially if the offender is present at the interview, for fear of reprisal or out of shame or embarrassment,” Schlesinger said. He added that “some victims of domestic violence may not perceive these acts as criminal.”

70% of Victims Male

Males committed 77% of the stranger-to-stranger crimes studied and 70% of the victims of crimes committed by strangers were male. But the data showed that, in crimes against relatives, women were perpetrators 35% of the time and were victims of 77% of the violence. Two-thirds of their attackers were current or former husbands or boyfriends and half the women reporting were separated or divorced. A quarter were listed as married, but the report suggested that crimes against married women were probably underreported.

Strangers were responsible for 43% of violent crimes committed in cities and 39% of those in suburban areas, but only 18% of perpetrators in rural areas were unknown to their victims. The figures were almost reversed by the findings on violent crimes committed by relatives, who were responsible for 39% of attacks in the suburbs, 35% in rural areas, but only 26% in cities.

In stranger-to-stranger incidents, two or more offenders were found to have been involved in 54% of robberies, 29% of assaults and 16% of rapes. Weapons were found to have been used in 36% of stranger-to-stranger crimes, as against 26% of attacks by relatives and acquaintances.