Assessment of the incidence of rape--North Carolina, 1989-1993. 1995


Rape has a substantial impact on the health of victims, including a broad spectrum of physical, psychologic, and social sequelae (1-3). The development of appropriate and effective rape-prevention programs is assisted by consistent collection of information about and by accurate estimation of the incidence of rape. In North Carolina, as in many other states, the only source of statewide and county-specific population-based data on rape incidence is the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR), coordinated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); however, these data may underestimate the actual incidence of rape (4,5) because they include only assaults that have been reported to police and that conform to the UCR definition of forcible rape. To assess the usefulness of rape crisis centers (RCCs) as an additional potential source of data for determining the incidence of rape, in 1994 the Injury Control Section, North Carolina Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources (NC-DEHNR), surveyed RCCs in North Carolina, then compared estimates of the annual incidence based on RCC and UCR data for selected counties during 1989-1993. This report summarizes the results of the survey and comparative analysis.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D009657 North Carolina State bounded on the north by Virginia, on the east and Southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Georgia and South Carolina, and on the west by Tennessee.
D011159 Population Surveillance Ongoing scrutiny of a population (general population, study population, target population, etc.), generally using methods distinguished by their practicability, uniformity, and frequently their rapidity, rather than by complete accuracy. Surveillance, Population
D011902 Rape Sexual intercourse without consent of the victim.
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D015994 Incidence The number of new cases of a given disease during a given period in a specified population. It also is used for the rate at which new events occur in a defined population. It is differentiated from PREVALENCE, which refers to all cases in the population at a given time. Attack Rate,Cumulative Incidence,Incidence Proportion,Incidence Rate,Person-time Rate,Secondary Attack Rate,Attack Rate, Secondary,Attack Rates,Cumulative Incidences,Incidence Proportions,Incidence Rates,Incidence, Cumulative,Incidences,Person time Rate,Person-time Rates,Proportion, Incidence,Rate, Attack,Rate, Incidence,Rate, Person-time,Rate, Secondary Attack,Secondary Attack Rates

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