One of the articles of faith of Start by Believing is that there is widespread sex bias among the police against female victims. Referring to women who allege sexual assault, the recent SBB report, "Start by Believing: Participation of Criminal Justice Professionals" highlights this quote:

• "Gender bias, whether explicit or implicit, conscious or unconscious, may include police officers misclassifying or underreporting sexual assault or domestic violence cases, or inappropriately concluding that sexual
  assault cases are unfounded; failing to test sexual assault kits; [and] interrogating rather than interviewing victims and witnesses."

But in this day and age, women are found at all levels of the criminal justice system, working as police investigators, chiefs of police, prosecutors, and judges. Does it make sense to claim that "implicit" or "unconscious" gender bias is rampant in the criminal legal system? Where's the proof?

It turns out there is a lot of sex bias...but not against women. When asked about the "Degree of Helpfulness" among victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner:

• Only 21.0% of male victims say the police are "Very" helpful, compared to 36.5% of women -- see graphic, above.
• 52.0% of male victims describe the police as "Not at all" helpful, compared to 33.7% of women.

If you want to look it up, here's the link to the CDC report. It's in Table 7.2.

Start By Believing, please consider this a formal request to update your report to highlight the documented problem of widespread sex bias against male victims.

Sincerely,

Edward Bartlett

P.S. We're now approaching 5,000 signers to this petition. Let's keep spreading the word!