Sexual Violence: Fact Sheet
 

OCCURRENCE

Statistics about sexual violence vary due to differences in how it is defined and how data is collected. Sexual violence data usually come from police, clinical settings, nongovernmental organizations, and survey research.

Available data greatly underestimate the true magnitude of the problem. Rape is one of the most underreported crimes. In 2002, only 39% of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law enforcement officials (DOJ 2003). While not an exhaustive list, here are some statistics on the occurrence of sexual violence.

• About 2 out of 1000 children in the United States were confirmed by child protective service agencies as having experienced sexual assault in 2003 (DHHS 2005).  See child maltreatment fact sheet for more information.

• Among high school youth nationwide:

  • About 9% of students reported that they had been forced to have sexual intercourse.

  • Female students are more likely than male students to report sexual assault (11.9% vs. 6.1%). 

  • Overall, 12.3% of Black students, 10.4% of Hispanic students, and 7.3% of White students reported that they had been forced to have sexual intercourse (CDC 2004).

• Among college students nationwide, between 20% and 25% of women reported experiencing completed or attempted rape (Fisher, Cullen, and Turner 2000).

• Among adults nationwide:

  • More than 300,000 women (0.3%) and over 90,000 men (0.1%) reported being raped in the previous 12 months.

  • One in six women (17%) and one in thirty-three men (3%) reported experiencing an attempted or completed rape at some time in their lives.

  • Rape usually occurs more than once. Among adults who report being raped, women experienced 2.9 rapes and men experienced 1.2 rapes in the previous year (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000).

Sexual violence can have very harmful and lasting consequences for victims, families, and communities. The following list describes just some of them.

Physical 

• Women who experience both sexual and physical abuse are significantly more likely to have sexually transmitted diseases (Wingood et al. 2000).

• Over 32,000 pregnancies result from rape every year (Holmes et al. 1996)

• There are long-term consequences such as:

  • Chronic pelvic pain

  • Premenstrual syndrome

  • Gastrointestinal disorders

  • Gynecological and pregnancy complications

  • Migraines and other frequent headaches

  • Back pain

  • Facial pain

  • Disability preventing work (Jewkes, Sen, and Garcia-Moreno 2002)