Two Bills Proposed To Combat Sexual Violence In State

<p>Oklahoma routinely ranks among the worst states for sexual violence, but as the next legislative session come closer, it seems lawmakers are not taking steps to combat it.&nbsp;</p>

Tuesday, January 23rd 2018, 7:55 am

By: Grant Hermes


Oklahoma routinely ranks among the worst states for sexual violence, but as the next legislative session come closer, it seems lawmakers are not taking steps to combat it. 

Two bills are looking to curb sexual violence in the state.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 56 percent of Oklahoma women report they've had some kind of unwanted sexual experience and roughly 1 in 5 women reported they were victims of rape or attempted rape. 

Despite those troubling numbers, there were only a pair of bills among the more than 1,900 filed for this upcoming session pertaining to reporting sexual violence. One of them is the Oklahoma Sex Crimes Act of 2018, but right now, there's nothing but the title page. 

The other is a bill that allows doctors to report assault or rape cases brought as long as they get permission from victims or if they're asked by law enforcement. It also requires law enforcement agencies to give those report totals to the OSBI each quarter. 

Right now, doctors are not required to report cases of rape or sexual assault on adult victims under state law. 

One even more troubling thing about these numbers, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, is two-thirds of sexual violence cases go unreported each year, so our true state numbers are likely much higher than what's being said by the CDC. 

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