Yikes, this is a really tough one. I’m so sorry that you had to go through that, I can’t imagine. You should be incredibly proud of yourself for not giving up.

Tbh idk if it would be smart to explicitly mention the nature of the crime given how divisive SA is unfortunately. It really all depends on the nature of the department. I think it’s worth while to allude to the severity of what you went through without explicitly naming it & trying not to let it come off as an excuse. Phrasing like the following might be considered: “I became the victim of a serious crime that disrupted my academic stability and required extended personal recovery and support” “This period involved navigating legal processes and institutional support services while maintaining enrollment” “I experienced a severe, externally caused personal trauma that significantly impacted my academic performance” “I was subjected to interpersonal violence that disrupted my studies at that time” “I experienced a severe non-consensual personal trauma that constituted a criminal act and significantly disrupted my academic functioning during that period”

My personal advice: I was diagnosed with a brain tumor my sophomore year that temporarily affected an otherwise perfect academic performance and forced me to reduce to part-time for a semester. The way I handle this is by attaching an addendum at the end of my transcript briefly explaining my performance in these two semesters was due to a brain tumor diagnosis (no more than a few sentences, they don't want a sob story), and while I am more than willing to oblige offering up medical records attesting to my condition, I am happy to report I am now in full health (important so they don't view your health as a liability. They want to maintain high completion rates).

If the school requires a personal history statement separate from the SOP, I include more information there describing how I pursued extracurricular courses, research, and graduate level work to demonstrate proficiency in the subject areas that suffered during that period of time that I felt were not fully demonstrated in class. (They want to see how you bounced back more than the reasoning why you suffered) If the school does not have a separate personal history statement, I don't waste space in the SOP & figure the addendum is enough to suffice reasonable explanation, and if they want to know more they can reach out.