#MeToo and Sexual Violence Reporting in the National Crime Victimization Survey

Abstract

The Me Too Movement has reshaped cultural awareness about sexual violence but little is known about how this shift may have coincided with changes in the reporting of sexual violence. The current study is the first to use the National Crime Victimization Survey to compare pre-#MeToo and post-#MeToo reports of sexual violence across three different blocks of time (Time 1: 2014–2015; Time 2: October 2017–September 2019; Time 3: October 2019–September 2021). Comparisons include prevalence rates of overall sexual violence, self-reports of sexual violence, official police reports of sexual violence, and situational characteristics of sexual violence (offender was a stranger, victim injury, victim services used). We also examine gender (women/men) and racial (White women/non-White women) differences in sexual violence reporting. Using formal comparisons, we find a significant increase in the rates of overall sexual violence as well as self-reports and stranger-offender reports of sexual violence between the pre- (Time 1) and the first post-#MeToo time point (Time 2). However, these increases are no longer evident in Time 3. In addition, the changes between the pre- (Time 1) and the first post-#MeToo time point (Time 2) are driven primarily by White women’s reporting of sexual violence, and we find no significant changes in the rates of sexual violence experienced by men nor non-White women during these time periods.