One in Four college women report surviving rape (15%) or attempted rape (12%) since their fourteenth birthday.1
Only 27% of the women whose sexual assault met the legal definition of rape thought of themselves as rape victims.1
42% of rape victims told no one about the assault, and only 5% reported to the police.1
Studies show that 10-20% of all males are sexually violated at some point in their lives.2
Women aged 16 to 24 experience the highest per capita rate of intimate partner violence.4
75% of male students and 55% of female students involved in date rape and been drinking or using drugs.5
Almost one third of all rape victims develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) sometime during their lives and 11% of rape victims currently suffer from the disorder.6
Persons with disabilities are 1.5 to 5 times more likely to become victims of sexual abuse and assault.7
35% of men report at least some degree of likelihood of raping if they could be assured they wouldn't be caught or punished.8
Sexual assault offenders were substantially more likely than any other category of violent criminal to report experiencing physical or sexual abuse as children.9
Sexual violence starts very early in life. More than half of all rapes of women (54%) occur before age 18; 22% of these rapes occur before age 12. For men, 75% of all rapes occur before age 18, and 48% occur before age 12.6
Of people who report sexual violence, 64% of women and 16% of men were raped, physically assaulted, or stalked by an intimate partner. This includes a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner, boyfriend/girlfriend, or date.6
Rape is called the most underreported violent crime in America.11
Forty-two percent of women in one study said they had been victims of sexual coercion while dating in college. Of those women, 70 percent did not seek help.12
Women are more likely to report sexual assault if their assailant is a stranger than if the assailant is an acquaintance, and they are more likely to report completed rape than attempted rape.12
92,700 men are forcibly raped each year in the United States.18
1 Warshaw, R. (1994). I never called it rape. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
2 Virginia Department of Health brochure: Sexual Violence, A Men’s Issue; Developed by The Men’s Rape Prevention Project in Washington, DC.
3 Fisher, S., Cullen, F., Turner, M., 2000. The Sexual Victimization of College Women. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.
4 U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes Committed by Current and Former Spouses, Boyfriends & Girlfriends. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997.
5 Koss, K.P., 1998. “Hidden Rape: Incident, Prevalence and Descriptive Characteristics of Sexual Aggression and Victimization in a National Sample of College Students.” Rape and Sexual Assault, vol. II (ed.) A.W. Burgess. New York: Garland Publishing Co.
6 Tjaden, P. & Thoennes, 1998. N., Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. National Institute of Justice.
7 Sobsey, D. 1992. The National Center on Child Sexual Abuse, The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect.
8 Malamuth, N. M. (1981). Rape proclivity among males. Journal of Social Issues, 37, 138-157. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Rape fact sheet. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
9 Greenfeld, L.A. (1997). Sex offenses and offenders: An analysis of data on rape and sexual assault, Washington DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
10 Mohler-Kuo M, Dowdall GW, Koss MP, Wechsler H. Correlates of rape while intoxicated in a national sample of college women. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 2004;65(1):37-45.
11 Kilpatrick, DG, Edmunds, CN, & Seymour, AK. Rape in America: A Report to the Nation. Arlington, VA: National Victim Center. 1992.
12 American College Health Association, “Is Dating Dangerous.” American College Health Association, 1997.
13 MECASA Center Statistics, 2005.
14 Tjaden, Patricia and Nancy Thoennes. Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. National Institute of Justice, US Department of Justice, November 1998.
