Facts & Stats

Sexual assault happens every day to many people no matter their age, if they are rich or poor, male or female. Here are some statistics you should know.

General

• Every 73 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Every 8 minutes, that victim is a child. 
• In Rhode Island, it is estimated that 1 in 8 women have been sexually assaulted during their lifetime.
• About 44% of rape victims are under age 18, and 80% are under age 30.
• More than 59% of all sexual assaults go unreported to police. 
• Only 6 of every 1,000 perpetrators will end up in prison. 
• Almost 9% of Rhode Island’s high school students reported that they had experienced sexual violence by someone they were dating or going out with in the last 12 months.  (YRBS, 2013)
• As of 1998, 2.78 million American men had been victims of attempted or completed rape.
• 1 in 6 American women have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.
• Females ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape or sexual assault. 
• 94% of women who are raped experience PTSD symptoms during the two weeks after the rape
• Among adults, 73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger. Among college women, that number rises to 80%.
• About 25% of women in the military have been sexually assaulted during their careers.
• Native Americans are twice as likely to experience a rape/sexual assault compared to all other races. 
• People who identify as LGBQ/T experience sexual and domestic violence at the same or higher rates than those who identify heterosexual. (NISVS 2010)
• 21% of LGBTQ+ college students have been sexually assaulted.
• 55% of assaults happen near or at the victim’s home. 

Children

• One of every seven victims (or 14% of all victims) of sexual assault reported to law enforcement agencies was under age 6. One in three victims of sexual assault is under age 12.
• One in every four girls and one in every six boys will be a victim of sexual abuse before age 18.
• In more than 90% of child abuse cases, the victim knows his or her abuser. Almost half the time, it’s a family member.
• According to Child Protective Services, from 2009-2013 63,000 children a year were victims of sexual abuse. 

People with Disabilities

• Among people with developmental disabilities, as many as 83% of females and 32% of males are victims of sexual assault.
• Each year, 15,000 to 19,000 people with developmental disabilities are raped in the United States.
• Persons with disabilities were the victims of violent crime three times as much as persons without disabilities in 2013. 1.3 crimes happened in 2013

Sex Trafficking

• For the most accurate numbers on sex trafficking in the United States, visit the Polaris Project. 
• Rhode Island Uniform Response Protocol for the commercial sexual exploitation of children 

Sources:

• 2015 Sureau of Justice Stats
• 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.
• Ruggiero, K. J., & Kilpatrick, D.G. (2003). Rape in Rhode Island: A Report to the State. Charleston, SC: National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center, Medical University of South Carolina.
• 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.
• Snyder, Howard, Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics . U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. July 2000.
• 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.
• Snyder, H. and Sickmund, M., 1999. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, National Center for Juvenile Justice.
• Snyder, H. and Sickmund, M., 1999. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, National Center for Juvenile Justice.
• Johnson, I., Sigler, Ri. 2000. "Forced Sexual Intercourse Among Intimates," Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 15 (1)
• Sobsey, D. 1994. "Violence and abuse in the Lives of People with Disabilities: The End of Silent Acceptance?"
• 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.
• Snyder, H. and Sickmund, M., 1999. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, National Center for Juvenile Justice.
• Fisher, Bonnie, Cullen, Francis, Turner, Michael. (2000). The Sexual Victimization of College Women.Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice and Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.
• RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network). (n.d.). Statistics United States. Retrieved October 7, 2016 from https://rainn.org/statistics
• United States Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. (2014). Not Alone:  The First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault. Retrieved from https://www.notalone.gov/assets/report.pdf
• Finkelhor, David, Hotaling, G., Lweis, I., Smith, C. “Sexual Abuse in a National Survey of Adult Men and Women: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Risk Factors.” Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol. 14, pp. 19-28, 1990.+
• Laura Kann, PhD,1 Steve Kinchen,1 Shari L. Shanklin, MPH,1 et al., Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance MMWR 2014; 63(No. SS-#4): 10-11