jriddle@thealpenanews.com
Alpena County either excels at supporting sexual assault survivors or has a serious sex crime problem.
Over the past five years, Alpena County police received more than 300 reports of sexual assaults — including rape, unwanted sexual touching, and other forced sex acts — making sex assaults the most prevalent violent crime in our area, according to Michigan State Police data.
The data also suggests we might have more of a problem than other communities: The assaults reported here over the last five years work out to 1,102 assaults per 100,000 residents, double the statewide rate (Alpena County’s per-capita rate shows more assaults than actually reported because we have fewer than 100,000 residents).