Sexual Assault

Sexual assault is any unwanted sexual act done by one person to another. Statistics show that most abusers are men and most victims are women. Sexual assault can be anything from unwanted touching of a sexual nature to rape.

Victims: Women are 10 times more likely than men to be victims of sexual assault.

1 out of every 5 young women reported being forced to have sexual intercourse.

 42% of raped women said they expected to be raped again.

1 in 4 female college students surveyed are victims of rape or attempted rape.

One out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.

The youngest victim of sexual assault that was reported was 2 months old; the oldest victim was 94 years old.

80% of sexual assault survivors knew their assailant, at least by sight.

42% of college women who are raped tell no one about it.

1 out of 6 U.S. women has experienced an attempted or completed rape as a child and/or an adult.

683, 000 forcible rapes occur every year, which equals 56, 916 per month, 1, 871 per day, 78 per house, and 1.3 per minute.

Men and Sexual Assault: One in 15 male college students reported committing a rape or attempting to commit a rape during the preceding year.

Nearly one-third of male college students said they were likely to attempt a rape if they thought they could get away with it.

84% of college men who had committed rape said they considered what they did to not be rape.

7% of all American men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

1 out of 33 U.S. men has experienced an attempted or completed rape as a child and/or an adult.

Men are perpetrators in about 86% of male sexual assault cases.

Contrary to popular belief, most male perpetrators are heterosexual.

Men who have not dealt with the symptoms of their sexual assault may experience confusion about their sexuality and role as men. They may see themselves as weak and a victim and thus, not a man. Also, they may experience feelings of shame, stigmatization, and negative reactions. Due to myths about sexual assault, male victims may fear that the sexual assault by another man will cause them to become gay. That is false, sexual assault does not cause someone to have a particular sexual orientation.

Effects: Overall, rape has the highest annual victim cost of any crime. The annual victim costs are $127 billion. This is followed by assault at $93 billion per year, murder at $61 billion, and child abuse at $56 billion.

36% of women who are injured during a rape require medical attention.

80% of rape victims will suffer from chronic physical or psychological conditions over time.

Nearly one-third of all rape victims develop rape-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Rape Trauma Syndrome sometime in their lifetimes.

Rape victims are more likely than non victims to be in poor health, express low satisfaction with life, experience depression, abuse drugs, and think about suicide.

Reporting: Only an estimated 16% of rapes and sexual assaults are ever reported to law enforcement.

In 1995 there were 97, 460 rapes reported to law enforcement officials. At a 16% reporting rate, this means that there were actually closer to 649, 733 rapes in the United States.

Conviction: 54% of all rape prosecutions end in either dismissal or acquittal.

Less than half of those arrested for rape are convicted.

While there are an average of 683, 000 forcible rapes in any given year, in 1993 there were only 29, 432 arrests for the same crime.

There is a 50.8% chance that an arrest will be made.