During 2000 through 2004, there were 546 rapes reported in The Bahamas, according to statistics contained in a new police report.
Out of these cases, the police said 49 involved victims who were visitors to The Bahamas. Hence, this amount represented approximately 9 percent of all rapes reported to the police during this time period.
The police said the number of tourist rape matters reached its highest point for the time period in 2002 and 2003. These years alone represented approximately 65 percent of all tourist rape matters for the time period.
However, the police said reported rapes against tourists have since been reduced by over half (56 percent) from 2002 to 2004.
Out of the 49 reported tourist rape cases, 41 or 84 percent, involved US citizens, according to the police report.
Hence, only about 7 percent of all reported rape cases in The Bahamas involved victims who were citizens of the United States. Police said reported rapes against US citizens have been drastically reduced by over 64 percent from 2002 to 2004.
An examination of the months when tourist rape matters occurred indicated that the highest number of cases occurred during March and April, according to the police.
“These months, as it is well known, are the ones in which colleges and universities across the world are typically closed for Spring Break,” the police report said. “The months of March and April yielded the top two amounts of reported tourist rapes.
Combined, these two months accounted for over a third (37 percent) of all reported rape cases involving tourists. The third most popular was June, which accounted for about 13 percent of such cases.
This trend is similar for US rape victims, according to the police, who said almost half (41 percent) of reported rapes involving US victims occurred during these spring break months.
The police report also noted that the majority of the incidents happened on weekend days, particularly Saturday and Sunday.
It said over half (51 percent) of all tourist rape cases occurred on Saturday and Sunday while the remainder of the week displayed minimal occurrences. The US rape cases have a similar trend in terms of this observation, the report said.
According to the police, 71 percent of all rapes during the time period in question occurred during 12am and 8am. Hence, a significant amount (31 percent) of these incidents occurred late Friday night into early Saturday morning and late Saturday night into early Sunday morning.
“These periods are known to be the prime time for persons to attend popular nightspots in The Bahamas and indeed across the world,” the police report said.
That report also said that an analysis of the various areas in The Bahamas where tourist rapes are reportedly occurring revealed that most take place in the vicinity of major hotels and downtown areas where tourists usually spend most of their time.
These areas, the report said, accounted for approximately 63 percent of all tourist rapes and 56 percent for US visitors.
The most popular location for US tourist rapes to occur was a hotel room, according to the analysis, which said this location represented well over a quarter (31 percent) of all US tourist rape locations during the time period.
Residential and beach areas were the second and third most common locations respectively and together accounted for 28 percent of all locations, the report said.
When analyzing exactly what the victim was doing moments before the incident, police said the most popular activity, as stated previously, was noted to be attending a local nightclub, the report added.
It said the “clubbing” category alone accounted for about 32 percent of rape victims’ activities prior to the incident.
The report said, “It is interesting to note than in 68 percent of US tourist rape incidents, the victim was intoxicated at the time [of the] altercation. Furthermore, approximately one third (33 percent) of these victims could not recall exactly what happened during the encounter when interviewed by investigators.”
Additionally, it notes that about 93 percent of US rape victims had either met their assailant prior to or got to know them for the first time before the incident. Hence, only 7 percent of these cases involved a complete stranger raping a victim.
Moreover, the report said, about 68 percent of the US rape victims left with their assailants willingly without the use of threat of force.
The police said in their report that, “The Bahamas remains devoted in continuing efforts to bring all un-cleared sexual offenses against tourists, American or otherwise, to a successful closure.
“It is most certainly necessary for both governments to join in partnership and invest in preventative initiatives with a view to significantly attenuate the significant numbers of this and other heinous crimes committed against our valued tourists.”
Source: The Bahama Journal
