Police are investigating a sexual assault of a 22-year-old woman by a stranger on Langdon Street, an incident reported to police Saturday.
The victim reported the assault, which occurred on the 100 block of Langdon Street, to the Madison Police Department at the urging of her friend one week after the incident occurred, a statement MPD said
According to the report, the victim was walking down Langdon Street at approximately 12:20 a.m. on either Sept. 6 or 7, when she was attacked by a stranger. The suspect reportedly grabbed the woman from behind, punched her in the stomach and groped her over her clothes, the statement said.
The victim screamed and fought back, and said she believes she may have injured the suspect during the assault, who is described as a white male in his late 20s, according to the statement.
MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said police are unsure if the victim or the suspect were University of Wisconsin students and added there is no indication that alcohol was involved in the incident.
He said it is rare to see an assault by a stranger and in most sexual assault incidents the victim knows the suspect.
“We do see some stranger sexual assaults in Madison but they are very few compared to the majority of sexual assaults that take place,” DeSpain said
According to Kelly Anderson, Executive Director for the Dane County Rape Crisis Center, the victim is familiar with the assailant in 80 to 85 percent of sexual assault cases. On a campus, Anderson said that number is closer to 90 percent.
Anderson agreed with DeSpain, adding although stranger assaults are rare, victims are more likely to report them to police.
“Stranger assaults are the least common assaults but they are the most often reported and the most covered in the media,” she said.
According to the MPD statement, the victim was reluctant to report the crime at first.
Many victims also wait before reporting sexual assaults because of the intimate nature of the incidents, and physical trauma can make it difficult for the victim to decide how to react, Anderson said.
“Its not at all unusual for victims to need some time before reporting a sexual assault,” she said.
