BOULDER, Colo.—A Boulder-based rape crisis center says its hot line has received 11 percent more calls this year than last—a sharp increase for a service that typically sees minimal changes from year to year.
The news follows a string of six random assaults in Boulder, including four sexual assaults. The attacks have prompted Boulder police to step up patrols on University Hill in hopes of preventing more assaults and catching the perpetrators.
The first in the series of attacks came on Halloween, when a 20-year-old woman reported being approached by four men in alley near Boulder High and raped by two of them. Three days later, another woman was attacked and knocked out in the same area. When she awoke, she felt she might have been sexually assaulted, police said.
The most recent attack was reported Friday by a 21-year-old University of Colorado student who said she fought off a man who tried to strangle her in an alley.
Officials with Moving to End Sexual Assault said their rape hot line has been ringing off the hook with calls from women who’ve been assaulted and friends of victims who want advice.
The hot line has received 896 calls so far this year, up from a total of 804 last year, said Janine D’Anniballe, MESA’s executive director.
Some of the calls pertained to random assaults, but many of the victims who called MESA this year said they were raped by someone they knew, D’Anniballe said.
“We have to remind people that 80 to 85 percent of the time, it’s not a stranger,” she said.
Boulder police said that despite the recent string of high-profile cases, report tallies for 2008 sexual assaults are on par with pervious years.
Through the second week in November, Boulder police took 81 reports of sex offenses, said police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley. That compares with 79 reported through the same period last year.
“We understand there might be a perception that sex crimes are up because the nature of these ones are such that we feel there’s a need to go public,” Huntley said.
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Information from: Daily Camera,
