Sexual Assault Fact Sheet

Sexual Violence Definition

Sexual violence is any act (verbal and/or physical), which breaks a person’s trust and/or safety and is sexual in nature. The term “sexual violence” includes: rape, incest, child sexual assault, ritual abuse, date and acquaintance rape, marital or partner rape, sexual contact, sexual harassment, exposure and voyeurism. Sexual assaults are acts of violence where sex is used as a weapon. Victims/survivors do not cause their assaults and are not to blame. Offenders are responsible for their assaults.

Sexual Assault General Statistics

• 17.7 million women in the United States have been the victim of a rape or attempted rape at some point in their lives. (National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control; Research in Brief, Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. November, 1998).
  
• One study found that 34% of sexual assaults occurred when victims were less than 12 years old; 33% occurred between the ages of 12-17; and 14% occurred between the ages of 18-24. (Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics. U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, 2000).
  
• In 1999, 71% of rape or sexual assault victims knew their offenders. (Criminal Victimization in 1999: Changes 1998-1999, with trends 1993-1999. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. August, 2000).
  
• About 2/3 of sexual assaults occur between 6p.m. and 6a.m. (Sex Offenses and Offenders: An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault. Greenfeld, Lawrence A. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. February, 1997).
  

Child Sexual Abuse

• 67% of all victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement were juveniles under the age of 18. More than half (34%) of these victims were under the age of 12. (Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000).
  
• Females comprised 82% of all juvenile victims. 73% of female victims were under the age of 12. 69% of female victims were under the age of 6. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000).
  
• In 1999, 47% of child sex offenders were related to the victim, 49% were acquaintances, and 4% were strangers. (Juvenile Offenders and Victims 1999 National Report. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1999).

Teen Sexual Assault and Abuse

• Approximately, 1.8 million adolescents in the United States have been victims of sexual assault. (Kilpatrick, D., Acierno, R., Saunders, B., Resnick, H., Best, C. and Schnurr, P. National Survey of Adolescents Executive Summary. Charlestown, SC: Medical University of South Carolina, National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, 1998).
  
• 33% of sexual assaults occur when the victim is between the ages of 12-17. (Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics. U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, 2000).
  
• Teens 16-19 years of age were 3.5 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. (Bureau of Justice Statistics. National Crime Victimization Survey. U.S. Department of Justice, 1996).

College Campus Sexual Assault

• The most vulnerable population for campus rape is freshman girls during the first few months of school. Many of these girls were virgins before they were raped. (Neimark, Jill. Out of Bounds, the Truth About Athletes and Rape. Interactivetheater.org, 2000).
  
• 1 out of 6 college women have been raped or have been the victim of an attempted rape during the past year. (Weitzman, E., DeJong, W. and Finn, P. Alcohol and Acquaintance Rape: Strategies to Protect Yourself and Each Other. The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention. U.S. Department of Education, 1999).
  
• 1 out of 15 male students raped or attempted to rape a woman during the past year. (Weitzman, E., DeJong, W. and Finn, P. Alcohol and Acquaintance Rape: Strategies to Protect Yourself and Each Other. The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention. U.S. Department of Education, 1999).
  
• Only 5% of undergraduate women reported their sexual assault to police. (Schwartz, M. and Leggett, M. Bad Dates or Emotional Trauma – The Aftermath of Campus Sexual Assault. Violence Against Women, Vol. 5, No. 3, March 1999).