Victim: A Synthesis of Research Findings. New York,

The FBI lists rape as the third most serious violent offense, after homicide and robbery, yet there is an overwhelming dis-crepancy between the seriousness of the offense and the punish-ment received for it. The most optimistic figures estimate that only one in ten offenders is convicted; the most pessimistic suggest a conviction rate of less than one percent (FBI, 1977). The victim crucially affects the criminal justice system's response: directly, by choosing whether to report the attack, file charges, and continue with the prosecution, and indirectly, by becoming the focus of accusations that she provoked the attack. Only a minority of rapes are reported to the police, and many women who report rapes decline to continue in the legal processing of the case. A victim's willingness to proceed in the criminal justice system has been shown to be influenced by how she perceives its response to her report (Burgess and Holmstrom, 1978). The victim suffers more than physically from sexual assault. Subsequent adjustment depends heavily on the response she gets, and how accepting and supportive are persons with whom she comes in contact. Attacks on her credibility, along with ignorance of the adjustment process she must go through, make the transi-tion back to normal life extremely difficult. Study of the ' rape victim is important for several reasons. Discovering. the variables correlatedwith vulnerability to attack may lead to policies that would result in fewer attacks. This may also increase the conviction rate for attackers. Decline in the attitude that blames the victim for her assault and greater insight into the adjustment process of victims may enable them to receive better counseling. Toward these goals, Katz and Mazur offer a comprehensive and systematic analysis of rape research focusing on the victim to date, Understanding the Rape Victim: A Syn-thesis ofResearch Findings (1979)