In the last month or so, Rebecca has spoken to the detective and a sergeant with the Special Victims Division; both said they would continue to look into the case. But she said she learned from a Brooklyn prosecutor that the case had been closed.

“Part of me just wants to give up because, do I really want take on the N.Y.P.D.?” Rebecca said.

Rebecca was one of eight women interviewed by The New York Times who said the police had played down, misclassified or ignored their complaints of being sexually assaulted. The Police Department would not discuss their cases or comments.

Here are accounts of three of the other women.

Renee LeBlanc

Renee LeBlanc began her own investigation after she woke up naked in bed one morning in 2008, unable to remember much from the previous evening. She pieced together evidence that suggested that a man drugged her at a bar and tried to rape her in her apartment.

She went back to the bar. Bartenders described a man whom she did not know carrying her from the bar; they said they would save surveillance video from that night.

Ms. LeBlanc, 27, said she later learned that the cabdriver who drove them to her apartment had called the police because the man skipped the fare. Ms. LeBlanc said she also had several charges on her credit card that she believed the man had made, including one for a hotel in the city.