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Sexual assault incidents are badly underreported and poorly counted, according to an exhaustive national study published Tuesday, which found that law enforcement and support service agencies are often unable to give survivors the help they need

The study by the National Research Council recommends ways the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics can improve its surveying of sexual assault cases. It also examines how a half-dozen other methods of counting sexual assaults compare.
"The end result is that they provide different estimates of the extent of rape and sexual assault. This in turn creates confusion for the public, for law enforcement, for policymakers, for researchers and for victim advocacy groups," researchers wrote in the 265-page report.
The research council, noting that some 80 percent of sexual assaults go unreported to law enforcement, recommends the National Crime Victimization Survey adopt new approaches to interviews, including changing the wording of questions.
The survey method, which includes interviews in households, is cited as a major reason for numbers that may be off. In part, the council wants sexual assault described in health terms, not just criminal terms.
The report says that while the survey is generally considered the best source of information on crime, it likely has undercounted sexual assaults for years and falls short of capturing statistics that can be compared from year to year.