Uber reveals data on rape, sexual assault incidents in 2019-2020 safety report
SAN FRANCISCO (KXAN) — On Thursday, Uber published its 2019-2020 US Safety Report. A section of the report highlighted rapes and sexual assaults.
From 2019 to 2020, a total of 388 rape incidents were reported — 247 in 2019 and 141 in 2020. This showed a 6% decrease from Uber’s 2017-2018 report. In total, there were 3,824 incidents reported.
According to the report, the overall rate of sexual assault reported on the Uber app decreased by 38% between the first safety report covering 2017-2018 and the 2019-2020 report.
“The total number of sexual assault reports… went from 5,981 to 3,824,” Uber said in the report.
Uber cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a possible factor for the change in sexual assault reports. According to Uber’s data, 2019 had 1.4 billion U.S. trips, and that number dropped to 650 million in 2020.
The report showed both riders and drivers reported sexual assaults on the platform. Data from the 2019-2020 report showed drivers accounted for 56% of the accused parties.
According to the report, women made up 81% of the survivors in the data set, while men comprised about 15% of rape survivors. In 4% of the reported incidents, the survivor’s gender was unknown.
“This data is in line with broader research documenting that women are disproportionately affected by sexual violence,” Uber said in the report.
The 78-page safety report also provided insight surrounding motor vehicle fatalities and fatal physical assaults, as well as information on the sexual assaults.