REPORT SEXUAL ASSAULT
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- Every 5 seconds someone is sexually assaulted
- Every year in America over 68,000 women are forcibly raped.
- Over 12 million American adult women have been victims of forcible rape.
- About 84% of reported rapes involve an assailant known to the victim.
- 1 in 5 women will be a victim of a sexual assault by the time she is 18.
- 1 in 7 men will be a victim of a sexual assault by the time he is 18.
*As reported by the National Victim Center/Crime Victims U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
NATIONAL SURVEY OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES
- 1 in 4 female college students surveyed is a victim of rape or attempted rape.
- 1 out of 6 female college students reported having been the victim of rape or attempted rape during the preceding year.
- 1 in 15 male college students reported committing a rape or attempting to commit a rape during the preceding year.
- Only 27% of the women whose sexual assaults met the legal definition of rape thought of themselves as rape victims.
- 85% of rapes on campus are committed by acquaintances.
- 42% of college women who are raped tell NO ONE about their assault.
- Approximately 5% of college women who are raped report the rape to law enforcement.
- Approximately 5% of college women who are raped seek help at a rape crisis center.
- 42% of the women who were raped said they had sex again with the men who assaulted them.
- In this study, alcohol was a factor in 100% of reported gang rapes.
Internet National Statistics
Myths & Facts about Rape & Sexual Assault
MYTH: Rape is a crime of passion.
FACT: Rape is a crime of violence, control, & power.
MYTH: "It can't happen to me"...Rape is an isolated, infrequent event that only happens to certain kinds of people such as attractive young women and/or women who are promiscuous.
FACT: Anyone can be sexually assaulted. Victims can include infants to people in their nineties, people with disabilities, people of color, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, and people from every racial, ethnic, religious, & socio-economic background.
MYTH: "She asked for it." A rape is provoked by that person's behavior: being drunk, wearing tight clothing, staying out late...
FACT: No one asks to be sexually assaulted, nor does anyone's behavior justify the crime. The offender, not the survivor, is always responsible for the crime.
MYTH: Most offenders are African-American males.
FACT: Over 90% of sexual assaults occur between people of the same ethnic background.
MYTH: Men can defend themselves if being sexually assaulted.
FACT: Men are often attacked by gangs, assaulted with weapons, and taken by surprise. Drugs and alcohol are sometimes used. Physical strength is often not a factor of protection in sexual assaults and is often not a trait of the perpetrator. The perpetrator has likely planned the rape. The victim doesn't know about a rape ahead of time and is usually shocked.
MYTH: "Someone could stop a rape if they wanted to."
FACT: Fear, threats, and physical brutality can immobilize anyone.
MYTH: Women secretly want to be raped.
FACT: Women do not want to be victims of violent humiliating assaults. A fantasy about aggressive sex is not asking to be raped.