In 2026, TCDA began publishing a second monthly sexual assault report. Here’s why.
What are the two monthly sexual assault reports now published by TCDA?
The Adult Sexual Assault Monthly Report (by Cause #) provides information about the number of sexual assault-related cases that TCDA receives, presents to grand jury, prosecutes, and resolves during each calendar month. These totals derive from counting unduplicated cause numbers.
The Adult Sexual Assault Monthly Report (by Incident) provides information that reflects how frequently an arrest for a sexual assault-related offense in Travis County results in criminal prosecution and/or conviction. These totals derive from counting unduplicated offense report numbers.
What is an offense report number? What is a cause number?
When law enforcement investigates an incident of alleged criminal conduct, that investigation is assigned an identifier known as an offense report number. If that investigation results in an arrest and the law enforcement agency refers the case to the county or district attorney’s office for criminal prosecution, charges that are filed against the accused are assigned a cause number.
Multiple cause numbers may be associated with a single incident (and thus a single offense report number) if a criminal investigation results in more than one criminal charge being filed against a defendant. As the prosecution of the criminal case(s) resulting from the incident progresses, the underlying offense report number stays the same although the cause numbers associated with the criminal case(s) may change. For example, to facilitate plea negotiations or to prepare for trial, it may be necessary to consolidate multiple criminal charges under a single cause number or refile a case under a new cause number and return to a grand jury to seek a revised indictment. When a case is consolidated under a different cause number or refiled under a new cause number to be reindicted, the previous cause number is recorded as rejected or dismissed and prosecution continues under the updated cause number.
Why did TCDA begin publishing a second monthly sexual assault report in 2026?
Because some rejections and dismissals are administrative in nature and do not signify the termination of the prosecution of the accused for a particular incident, prosecution data that aggregates case totals by cause number can create a false impression about the number of new cases that are presented to grand jury for indictment, rejected, or dismissed. The addition of a second monthly report that derives case total data from offense report numbers seeks to add clarity to the dismissal, rejection and indictment totals historically published by TCDA so that it is easier to distinguish: (1) when a rejection or dismissal means that TCDA has stopped prosecuting the accused for a sexual assault-related offense, and (2) how often Travis County grand juries determine that there is probable cause to indict the accused for an incident of sexual assault.
TCDA began publishing the Adult Sexual Assault Monthly Report (by Incident) in 2026 to ensure the public availability of data that more precisely reflects whether sexual assault-related criminal investigations in Travis County are referred to TCDA for prosecution, indicted by a grand jury, and result in the conviction of the accused.
TCDA continues to publish a version of its original monthly sexual assault report, now titled the Adult Sexual Assault Monthly Report (by Cause #), to provide insight into the prosecution activity of TCDA’s Sexual Assault Unit and allow continuity in the public reporting of TCDA’s sexual assault data, so that it remains possible to track trends in sexual assault-related prosecutions over time.