“The answer is simple,” Allred said. “Some may have held what they allege as a secret within them for many years. Some may have thought they would not be believed against what they thought would most likely be a complete denial by a rich, powerful celebrity.
“Some may have feared the wrath and retaliation of Mr. Trump and some of his supporters. Some may have thought that they were the only ones who were victimized.”
In just about every realm, not reporting sexual misconduct is far more common than reporting it is.
The Justice Department estimates that 65 percent of rapes and sexual assaults went unreported to the police from 2006 to 2010, a higher percentage than for non-sexual assaults. On campus, a federal nine-university “climate survey” (PDF) found that only 4.3 percent of sexual battery incidents and only 12.5 percent of rapes were reported to a campus or law enforcement official.