""Who's doing the raping?" Donald Trump asked rhetorically. "Who's doing the raping?"
The real estate mogul and Republican presidential candidate has gotten a lot of attention recently for his comments disparaging Mexican immigrants.
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best; they're not sending you," Trump said in his presidential announcement speech regarding illegal immigration. "They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists."
That brings us to this chart tweeted by Michael McDonough, Chief Economist of Bloomberg Intelligence. Citing US Department of Justice and Pew Research data, it shows that rape and sexual assault victimization rates among females have declined during a period when the number of illegal immigrants living in the US has risen.
Now, these two stats are among the most difficult to measure accurately as many sexual assaults unfortunately go unreported and most illegal immigrants are unlikely to report themselves. But assuming these stats are at least directionally accurate, this information could arguably conflict with what candidate Trump has been arguing about.
