rape reports hit 20-year low! good news?

According to USA Today, the number of reported rapes has hit a 20-year low in the United States! In 2008, approximately 89,000 women reported an instance of rape as compared to an estimated 109,062 reports in 1992. The article attributes the decline in the increased use of DNA evidence in convictions, the cooperation of victims with police forces, and changes in the way the authorities deal with rape cases.

Articles like these are always tricky; obviously, it is great news if incidence of rape has actually declined in the past decade. However, this news carries with it a double-edged sword: first, there is always the risk that these numbers will fool people into thinking that rape is not as big of an issue as it once was, and that we can let down our guard; second, it is also a possibility that the incidence of rape has not actually gone down, but the number of women actually reporting them has--which would align with philosophies of a modern rape culture that treats sex and sexual crime so casually that women don't even recognize sexual assault when it happens to them.