Massachusetts law stipulates that police must keep reports of rape and other sexual assaults in confidential files, not available to the general public. If the case ends up in criminal court, the police record becomes public but the alleged victim’s name is supposed to be blacked out. The main rationale for these laws is that victims of sex crimes will be less likely to report them if they believe they will be publicly identified.

The same reasoning is behind a well-intentioned provision in a new state law, now being implemented on the Vineyard, that restricts police from releasing reports of domestic violence. And while it is hard to quarrel with protecting any abuse victim, the effect is that perpetrators of these heinous crimes may also be protected.

If it wasn’t obvious before, the much publicized incident involving Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice brought home the insidiousness of these crimes which, as one victim’s advocate noted this week, are often hidden in plain sight.

On the Vineyard, the agency that deals with domestic violence reports counseling 96 survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault since July, almost double the number during the same period last year. Jennifer Neary, director of Connect to End Violence, told the Gazette this week the numbers don’t necessarily reflect an increase in domestic abuse so much as a greater willingness of victims to seek help.

While police and victims advocates are generally supportive of keeping domestic incidents out of public police logs, we wonder whether more coverage of domestic abuse rather than less wouldn’t encourage more victims to come forward. Isn’t the key lesson from the Rice incident that we need to bring these crimes out of the elevator and into the light?

To be sure, the new domestic violence law includes many valuable new provisions designed to increase support for victims and heighten accountability for people charged with domestic crimes. For example, the law allows for a six-hour “cooling off” period after an arrest, to give victims a chance to take safety precautions before an alleged assailant is let out on bail.

And it appears that police reports of domestic violence, unlike those of sexual assaults, will become public if and when they are filed in the district court. If so, the effect of shielding police reports may turn out to be muted.

In recent years, the stigma that used to automatically attach to victims of sexual and domestic crimes has eased. Keeping the records public would seem the best way to now turn the stigma back on the ones who deserve it.