Statewide sex offence report released: Total number of victims up 27 percent

WASILLA—The Alaska Department of Public Safety recently released a 2017 crime report focused on felony level sex offenses and showed that statewide reports of felony level sex offences are down by 4 percent in 2017 compared to 2016 but the total number of victims are up 27 percent.

“Victims under the age of 11 most often reported being assaulted by a parent or family member,” stated in the reported.

According to the report, the median age of female victims was 19, but the most common age was 15; the median age for male victims was 13 but the most common age was 4; and Alaska Native females were reported to have the highest rates of any gender or ethnic group, by far, resulting in 42 percent of all reported victims.

Western Alaska had the highest rate of felony level sex offenses at 106 percent higher when compared to the rest of the state.

“While agencies in the Anchorage area reported the highest volume of incidents (50 percent of the state total), agencies in Western Alaska reported the highest rate of incidents based on population, 106 percent higher than the statewide rate. Both Anchorage and Western Alaska have reported incidents higher than the statewide rate,” stated in the report.

Southcentral Alaska — which includes the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough — showed the lowest rate of felony sex offense incidents at 77 percent lower than the statewide rate, according to the report. The most common victim age was 12 and the most common suspect age was 17. The 2017 victims were mostly white at 51, with 20 Alaska Native Victims, 1 Asian victim, and 16 victims with an “unknown race.”

According to the report, 96 percent of 2017 suspects were male, with a median age of 30 but the most common age was 18. Alaska Native males were the top suspects at 495 with white males in a close second at 401, and “race unknown” in third place with 277 male suspects.

“In 59 percent of incidents, victims reported being assaulted by a member of their own race,” stated in the report. According to the report: for both of the age categories, 11-17 and 18 and above, the suspect was in most cases, someone the victim knew; 76 percent of incidents took place at a residence/home; and 88 percent of the incident did not involve the use of a weapon. This report only contains what has been reported to local law enforcement agencies across the state. Sexual offences are a very serious crime and although this report says that the Valley’s numbers are slightly down in some regards, the problem is clearly out there, with victims, particularly in domestic violence situations getting hurt almost every week, based on the sheer numbers of reports seen in police dispatches, court cases and so on.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com