Last month, Shelby County District Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons announced with public fanfare that a Memphis man pleaded guilty as charged to sexually assaulting and robbing a woman inside her home near Chickasaw Gardens in 2007.

The victim was with her 12-year-old son inside of the family’s home when she was assaulted and robbed. Prosecutors announced in court that forensic evidence gathered at the Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center (MSARC) during an examination of the victim just hours after the crime was crucial to proving the aggravated rape charge.

In this instance, a victim found justice. However, the most recent crime statistics from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation indicate the vast majority of sexual assault crimes in this area have a very different outcome: justice is far more elusive.

The 2008 TBI report shows that Memphis police cleared 47 percent of the 368 forcible rapes reported in Memphis in 2008 and arrested a total of 56 adults and juveniles, which is an arrest rate of 15 percent. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Department cleared 8 of its 39 forcible rape cases (20 percent) and arrested five juveniles, an arrest rate of 12.5 percent.

The clearance rate is a large umbrella used when police have identified a suspect, found evidence and closed a case. The circumstances may vary widely: charges may have been filed or the case may have been cleared by extraordinary means. In the latter instance, police have evidence that points to a particular suspect but for reasons beyond their control are unable to proceed. For example the suspect may have been killed or the victim may have decided not to proceed with the case. It is possible that a suspect still is walking the streets, even after a case is cleared and closed.

In the last few months, sexual assault in Memphis has emerged as front-page headlines and the lead item on the local news. Most of the focus centered on the lack of trained forensic nurses at MSARC.

The controversy has served to unite women across community fault lines. A public forum scheduled for this Father’s Day will examine some of the challenges and seek to create a community-wide response to ending violence against women. (The Memphis police clearance rate for crimes related to domestic violence was 26 percent in 2008, while the state clearance rate in this category was 57 percent, according to the TBI report.)

The forum, which seeks to address violence against women and girls, will be held at the Benjamin L. Hooks Public Library at 3030 Popular Avenue starting at 3 p.m. Deborah Clubb, executive director of the Memphis Area Women’s Council, will serve as moderator.

Statewide, the clearance rate for Tennessee’s law enforcement agencies is 37 percent for forcible rape, so Memphis police did better than average. The statewide arrest rate for forcible rape was 20 percent, which is higher than the arrest rate in both the city and the county. (There are other sexual assault crimes as well besides rape. For more details, you can find the report at   http://www.tbi.state.tn.us/Info%20Systems%20Div/TIBRS_unit/Publications/2008%20Crime%20in%20Tennessee.pdf.

The state’s overall clearance rate, which covers all offenses, was 34.13 percent. The overall offense clearance rate for Memphis police was 22.36 percent, while the rate for the Sheriff’s department stood at 21.55 percent.

Twenty years ago, when the MSARC was widely viewed as a model for the nation, a team of researchers sought to determine if Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) could increase the rate of conviction in rape cases. In 1983, they examined the legal outcomes for 621 victims who were treated in the Memphis SANE program in 1980.  Police reports were filed in 573 of these cases (92 percent), and 124 resulted in an arrest and successful prosecution in 22 to 28 percent of the time (Some of the cases had not closed at the time the project was completed so the report offers two estimates: 22 and 28 percent.)  Researchers concluded that the prosecution rates in Memphis were “low,” though higher than the rates typically found in programs that did not use specially trained nurses.

It is not clear why the arrest rates have dropped or when the decline began.

Major Lori Hopkins of the Memphis Police Department’s sex crimes unit said a clearance rate and arrest rate might differ for a number of reasons.  Some victims who file reports refuse to go to MSARC for exams, preferring to visit a private physician. In those cases, forensic evidence is not collected by a trained professional, making the case nearly impossible to prosecute.

In addition, the police also have cases where a victim will file a report but later decline to pursue criminal charges. And there have been cases as well where a victim is later found to have provided false information.

(Email Linda S. Wallace at memphisjourn@aol.com)