Baltimore City SART Report
October 4, 2011
CLICK HERE to Download the Baltimore City SART Report
The SART team, of which MCASA and MCASA’s Sexual Assault Legal Institute (SALI) are members, has been working cooperatively since July 2010 to address the City’s handling of rape and sexual assault cases following a Baltimore Sun investigation that revealed that Baltimore had the highest percentage of unfounded rape cases of any city in the country for the past four years.
The Baltimore City SART Report, produced by MCASA, details the SART’s activities, including the work of an audit committee which reviewed 134 cases of rape and/or sexual assault that had been unfounded between January 2009 and August 2010. In addition, a best practices committee was formed to conduct a review of national best practices, craft a SART mission statement and make recommendations for revisions to policies and procedures across all participating disciplines. A number of key processes within the Baltimore Police Department and the State’s Attorney’s Office have been strengthened as a result of this process.
The SART report reveals that a year later Baltimore City has seen:
• A 68% increase in the number of reported rapes (as of May 31, 2011). Given that incidences of rape and sexual assault are vastly under-reported, this is positive as more of victims are reporting their assaults. (National studies show that only 36% of non-stranger and 55% of stranger assaults are reported to the police.)
• The number of unfounded rape and attempted rape cases has decreased 93% (as of May 31, 2011) compared to the same period last year. As of May 31, 2011, 5 reports of rape were deemed unfounded.
CLICK HERE to Learn More about the Baltimore City Rape Is Not Your Fault Campaign
