In Torrance, he's brazen. He hasn't physically struck his victims, according to police, but he's audacious enough to attack in daylight. In Long Beach, he's methodical. He seems to have researched his victims, knowing they are alone and preying on them only then. And in Hancock Park, he was so obvious, or careless, he got caught--allegedly.
Perhaps the strongest commonality among the three serial rapists is that they are terrorizing the Los Angeles area this summer. Most law enforcement officials say the number of serial rapists has not increased, but there's been more media attention.
Last week, Long Beach police added more people to their rape task force because it was inundated with calls a day after Cmdr. Linda Beardslee, who heads the task force, held a news conference describing the assailant's method and exhorting the public to be observant. The Long Beach rapist's attacks go back to 1996; the most recent attempt was last Thursday, according to Long Beach police.
Sean Tanabe, the lead detective on the case of the Torrance rapist who is suspected of attacking three women from July 4 to July 29, said this is the first serial rapist he's encountered in the three years he's worked on sex crimes in the city.
"That's not to say these acts haven't been committed," he said. (It's unclear whether the same criminal is responsible for an attempted rape July 22 in the area.)
Rape is notoriously underreported, said Gail Abarbanel, director of the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center.
"All rapists are serial rapists, and they're very big recidivist offenders," said Abarbanel, who was trained and worked as a social worker before becoming involved in the treatment of rape victims. "They usually commit far more rapes than they get arrested for or convicted for."
Although the rapes that have been getting public attention the last few months appear to be cases in which the rapist is a stranger, most rapes, Abarbanel said, are committed by people the victim knows--a friend, neighbor, colleague, fellow student, someone met at a party or club.
"You're more likely to report a stranger rape than an acquaintance rape to authorities," Abarbanel said, adding that victims of a rapist they know often fear retaliation from the person or blame from the community.
"Acquaintance rape is just as criminal, just as devastating to the victim as stranger rape. The penal code doesn't distinguish between stranger rape and acquaintance rape."
