SEXUAL ASSAULTS SOAR, ADVOCATES SAY

According to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, while the overall violent crime rate fell 10 percent, incidents of rape rose 20 percent and sexual assault more than 33 percent between 1998 and 1999.  A report release last week by the BJS, was 'misleading' because it suggested all types of violent crime were down but important statistics were overlooked amid the good news: incidents of rape and sexual assault are on the rise.  Karen Baker, project director for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, a non-profit group backed by the federal government said, the disturbing fact is that sexual assault touches virtually every American family.  One in every four women will experience a sexual assault in their lifetime, that's every single family, she said.

(Washington)