April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Sexual Assault vs. Rape

Sexual assault is a broader category that the Justice Department uses to classify rape, attempted rape, and other violent felonies that fall short of rape. Rape is defined as forced vaginal, oral, or anal penetration.

First some stats on this horrible set of crimes:
1 out of every 6 American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (14.8% completed rape; 2.8% attempted rape).

17.7 million American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape.

9 of every 10 rape victims were female in 2003.

While about 80% of all victims are white, minorities are somewhat more likely to be attacked.

Lifetime rate of rape /attempted rape for women by race:
All women: 17.6%
White women: 17.7%
Black women: 18.8%
Asian Pacific Islander women: 6.8%
American Indian/Alaskan women: 34.1%
Mixed race women: 24.4%

Men
About 3% of American men — or 1 in 33 — have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.

In 2003, 1 in every ten rape victims were male.
2.78 million men in the U.S. have been victims of sexual assault or rape.
Children
15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12.

29% are age 12-17.
44% are under age 18.
80% are under age 30.
12-34 are the highest risk years.
Girls ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.
7% of girls in grades 5-8 and 12% of girls in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused.

3% of boys grades 5-8 and 5% of boys in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused.
In 1995, local child protection service agencies identified 126,000 children who were victims of either substantiated or indicated sexual abuse.

Of these, 75% were girls.
Nearly 30% of child victims were between the age of 4 and 7.
93% of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker.

34.2% of attackers were family members.
58.7% were acquaintances.
Only 7% of the perpetrators were strangers to the victim.

Effects of Rape
Victims of sexual assault are:
3 times more likely to suffer from depression.

6 times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

13 times more likely to abuse alcohol.

26 times more likely to abuse drugs.

4 times more likely to contemplate suicide.

How often does sexual assault occur?
In 2006, there were 272,350 victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. (These figures do not include victims 12 years old or younger.)

Every 2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted.
Here's the math. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey — the country's largest and most reliable crime study — there were 272,350 sexual assaults in 2006 (the most recent data available).

There are 525,600 minutes in a non-leap year. That makes 31,536,000 seconds/year. So, 31,536,00 divided by 272,350 comes out to 1 sexual assault every 116 seconds, or about 1 every 2 minutes.

Reporting Rates
Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes, with 60% still being left unreported.

Males are the least likely to report a sexual assault, though they make up about 10% of all victims.

What happens to Rapists When They are Caught and Prosecuted?
60% of rapes/sexual assaults are not reported to the police. Those rapists, of course, never spend a day in prison according to a statistical average of the past 5 years. Factoring in unreported rapes, only about 6% of rapists ever serve a day in jail.

Almost 2/3 of rapes were committed by someone known to the victim.
73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger.
38% of rapists are a friend or acquaintance.
28% are an intimate.
7% are a relative.


He's not Hiding in the Bushes
More than 50% of all rape/sexual assault incidents were reported by victims to have occured within 1 mile of their home or at their home.

4 in 10 take place at the victim's home.
2 in 10 take place at the home of a friend, neighbor, or relative.
1 in 12 take place in a parking garage.

43% of rapes occur between 6:00pm and midnight.

24% occur between midnight and 6:00am.
The other 33% take place between 6:00am and 6:00pm.
The Criminal
The average age of a rapist is 31 years old.
52% are white.
22% of imprisoned rapists report that they are married.
Juveniles accounted for 16% of forcible rape arrestees in 1995 and 17% of those arrested for other sex offenses.
In 1 in 3 sexual assaults, the perpetrator was intoxicated — 30% with alcohol, 4% with drugs.
In 2001, 11% of rapes involved the use of a weapon — 3% used a gun, 6% used a knife, and 2 % used another form of weapon.
84% of victims reported the use of physical force only.
Rapists are more likely to be a serial criminal than a serial rapist.
46% of rapists who were released from prison were re-arrested within 3 years of their release for another crime.

18.6% for a violent offense.
14.8% for a property offense.
11.2% for a drug offense.
20.5% for a public-order offense.

Those are some scary statistics folks.

 

Would you mind providing a link?

 

Nice first post.

 

Oh yeah, make me aware, baby.

 

Absolutely, I will provide several, if requested, this is the one the stats I posted earlier are from:
http://www.rainn.org/statistics/

 

I try. I have been lurking for a while. This is a subject that touches home for me on a personal level as well as the fact I serve as an advocate for sexual assault victims. Tis is important information and needs to be disseminated to a large audience, IMO.

Don't worry, I will be making frequent contribution to other topics here.

 

Why?

So far it reads like statistics without a point.

 

Well, the hope was that the use of statistics to show this is a much more common type of crime than is the common perception will increase awareness of the crime. The hope is that making people aware of it will prevent it from happening. Like the fact that a majority of people know their assailants, that 4 out of 10 women and 1 out of 10 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. That 60% of sexual assaults are perpetrated when alcohol or drug use is involved by either the assailant or the victim. I mean seriously, men are kind of indifferent to this class of crime because they feel they are invulnerable to it, but it does happen to us too.

The key isn't to create paranoia with a full fledged onslaught like this is going to happen to you, but to increase situational awareness through knowledge of the facts.

 

Ted would have loved this thread. :herp:

 

A manatee.

 

...you know most Wordforgers are men, and that a decent percentage of them carry guns, rights?

 

Yep. I also know that at a minimum 10% of men are sexually assaulted in their lifetime. I am in the military and had a case dealing where an Army infantryman was sexually assaulted - he had two tours in Iraq under his belt. He had been out with some friends, had a little too much to drink, got spearated from his frends and was attacked.

It can happen to any one! Your attitude of we're men and we carry guns is part of the problem because you think you are invulnerable from this sort of attack - you are wrong.

 

Note to Whizzer:

Before replying, check to see if tongue can be seen pushing against cheek from inside.

 

I feel like I've been "enlightened", "made aware" and have had my consciousness raised, and I don't like it one bit!

 

Point 1: Don't let your kids, specially young to teenage daughters be taken out or be cared for by a family member no matter how close they are. Most assaults are perpetuated by friends or family members that the parents trusted their young child with. For a recent celebrity reference, see Teri Hatcher.

Point 2: Don't be wasted with drugs or drinks in a party that is highly and sexually charged. Many college students are victims of this. Alcohol lowers a person's inhibitions and then they end up doing stuff that they normally wouldn't do. Specially for young women, don't go to any college parties where the booze is flowing freely and you end up drinking so much you cannot say 'no' to the guy trying to undo your blouse.

In other words, for both the points, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURSELF.

 

Take responsibility for your own safety. Don't be stupid, be aware of your surroundings, yeah. But this mentality shouldn't be taken so far as to blame the victim for the crime either. If a college girl (or guy) gets drunk at a party it isn't their fault somebody rapes them.

 

Sickening, why publicisze this shit?

 

It increases awareness and possibly makes someone stop and think.

 

What a classy month.

 

Think what, maybe I wont rape someone today? Its humiliating enough to live with something like that without awareness month or whatever. What possible good could this serve?

 

It serves to make people aware that there may be abuse going on in their communities.

Healthcare professionals are trained to recognize signs of abuse, but this reminds them.

Teachers and other school officials need to watch for signs of abuse in their students.

A neighbor may have suspicions that the guy next door is abusing his wife and/or his kids.

Someone who's being abused and has been denying it ("Well, he's my husband. He's allowed, isn't he?") may find the courage to take action.

You'd want people to be aware of other crimes. How to safeguard your home from break-ins, how to keep someone from picking your pocket. Sexual crimes shouldn't be swept under the rug.

 

I don't know. Why don't you ask all the victim's that participate in events around the country this month? You can google "sexual assault awareness month events" to get a list of events to seek these people out.

 

So often with rape statistics you read that so-many-out-of-ten women are raped etc. etc., but I wonder - about how many people are rapists? And why isn't this estimation published so often?

The stats Whizzer lists only mentions that rapists are more likely to be serial criminals than serial rapists. Does that mean that if four out of ten women are raped in their lifetimes, maybe three or four out of ten men commit rape in their lives?
(I know not all rape is man-against-woman, but it's for approximation's sake)

I read a study a while back where something like 14% (I think) of college men surveyed answered "yes" to the question "Have you ever forcefully had sex with someone against their will?" but I don't remember the details of that study.

 

Covers the 4 most common profiles of rapist:
http://propagandapress.org/2006/06/13/rapist-profile-warning-signs-male-female/

 

Well, this is depressing and I went to the web sight and it made my day

 

enlisted person just has pent up anger from all the sexual harassment briefings given in the military.

 

It is my hope that with an awareness of rape will come the arming of American women and the shooting of the criminal scum who attempt these rapes.

My woman has a carry permit, and she KNOWS how to use her weapon. We shoot together, and it is one of our favorite dates.

Woe be to the person who would attempt her rape.

 

Not to be obtuse or rude, but most of those "warning signs" are kinda no-brainers.

 

I'm thinking Whizzer is setting everyone up for a hell of a troll.

 

I wasn't blaming the victim. Just don't let yourself be in a vulnerable position where others may take unintended advantage on you. And this goes beyond the sexual situations in life.