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NOTE: Numbers in parentheses indicate citations
One out of every three women will be raped in her lifetime. (6,13,
17)
According to the Surgeon General, violence is the leading cause of
injury to women age 15-44. (8)
One out of four girls and one out of six boys are sexually abused
before age 18. (11)
84% of rapes go unreported; 46% of survivors of acquaintance rape and
27% of stranger rape survivors never tell anyone. (9, 14, 15)
77% of rape survivors know their attacker. These include rapes
committed by relatives, neighbors, acquaintances and boyfriends. 57% of
rapes occur on a date. (10, 15)
90% of children under the age of 12 knew their assailants.
(18)
51-60% of college men report they would rape a woman if they were
certain that they would get away with it. One out of twelve college men
surveyed had committed acts that met the legal definition of rape; 84%
of these men said what they did was DEFINITELY not rape. (12, 15, 16)
Alchohol may act for the assailant as a disinhibitor, as an excuse
following the assault, or as a strategy to reduce victim resistance.
At least 45% of rapists were under the influence of alcohol or
drugs at the time of the assault. (20)
One in every seven married women will be sexually assaulted by her
husband. (6, 12)
Of women who are killed, 55% are killed by a relative, spouse, or
other intimate partner. Of men who are killed, only 20% are killed by a
relative, spouse, or other intimate partner. (3)
71% of rapes are planned in advance. (10)
98% of all sexual assault survivors will never see their attacker
caught, tried and imprisoned. Of the rape cases brought to prosecution,
over one half will be dismissed before trial or acquitted. One half of
convicted rapists serve less than one year in prison. (9, 18)
A survivor of sexual assault is nine times more likely to attempt
suicide than a person not assaulted. (16)
39% of women in state prisons report being sexually abused prior to
being in jail. (21)
67% of women who were raped and/or physically assaulted since age 18
were assaulted by a current or former husband, cohabitating partner or
date. (19)
Survivors of sexual assault have higher rates of drug and alcohol
consumption and related problems (10):
-
Survivors
are 5.3 times more likely than non-survivors to use prescription drugs
for non-medical purposes
- 3.4 times more likely to
use marijuana
- 6.4 times more likely to
use cocaine
- Ten times more likely to
use hard drugs other than cocaine
- 79% of survivors who drink
alcohol became intoxicated for the first time after the assault
- 89% of survivors who use
cocaine used it for the first time after the assault.
More than 80% of women who are raped try to
physically resist (5).
Studies show that women whose response to an assault is to kick, hit,
scream, scratch or run away are half as likely to be raped as those who
do not - and are not injured
more often. Conversely, begging, pleading and reasoning are related to a
greater severity of sexual abuse (1, 13).
50-85% of women in the U.S. can expect to be sexually harrassed
during their academic or working life (7).
90% of people who encounter sexual harrassment are unwilling to
report for two primary reasons: fear of retaliation and fear of loss of
privacy (4, 16).
Sexual harrassment costs the government approximately $100 million a
year in actual and productivity costs (4, 16).
CITATIONS
1. Brink, S., 1993.
The Case for Fighting off a Rapist. U.S. News and World Report,
December, 74-75.
2. Burgess, A.W., 1991.
Rape and Sexual Assault III New York and London: Garland
Publishing, Inc.
3. Colburn, D., 1994.
When Violence Begins at Home: AMA Conference Addresses
"Problem of Shocking Dimension." Washington Post,
Health, March 15.
4. Fitzgerald, L.F., 1993.
Sexual Harassment: Violence Against Women in the Workplace. American
Psychologist, 48 (10), 1070-1076.
5. Koss, M.P., 1992.
Date Rape: Victimization By Acquaintance. The Harvard Mental
Health Letter 9 (3), 5-6.
6. Koss, M.P. & Harvey, M.R., 1991.
The Rape Victim New York, London, New Delhi: Sage
Publications.
7. Langelan, M.J., 1993.
Back Off! How to Confront and Stop Sexual Harassment and
Harassers New York: Simon and Schuster.
8. Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, 1992. Violence
Against Women: A Week in the Life of America.
9. Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, 1993. The
Response to Rape: Detours on the Road to Equal Justice.
10. Kilpatrick DJ, Edmunds CN, Seymour A, 1992. Rape in America: a Report to the Nation, Arlington,
VA: National Victim Center.
11. Staff, August 24, 1984. 22% In Survey Were
Child Abuse Victims. Los Angeles Times p.1.
12. Tavris, C. & Wade, C., 1984.
The Longest War: Sex Differences in Perspective, Second
Edition San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers.
13. Ullman, S.E. & Knight, R.A., 1992.
Fighting Back: Women's Resistance to Rape. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence 7 (1) , 31-42.
14. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice
Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 1992.
Women in Jail 1989.
15. Warshaw, R., 1994. I Never Called it Rape:
The Ms. Report On Recognizing, Fighting and Surviving Date and
Acquaintance Rape. New York: Harper and Row Publishers.
16. Women's Action Coalition (no date given) WAC
Stats: The Facts About Women New York: WAC.
17. Randall, Melanie and Haskell, Lori, 1995.
“Sexual Violence in Women’s Lives: Findings from the
Women’s Safety Project, A Community-Based Survey.”
Violence Against Women 1 (2): 6-31.
18. Greenfield,
Lawrence, 1997. Sex
Offenses and Offenders: An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault.
Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice
Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
19. Tjaden, Patricia and Thoennes, Nancy, November
1998. Prevalence,
Incident, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the
National Violence Against Women Survey.
Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, Office of the
Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
20. U.S. Department of Justice, 1994.
Violence Against Women.
Rockville, Maryland: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S.
Department of Justice.
21. Wolf, Harlow, C., 1999.
Prior Abuse Reported by Inmates.
Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department
of Justice.
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