Sexual assault is an act, verbal and/or physical, which can include several kinds of crimes such as rape, incest, fondling, sexual harassment, date and acquaintance rape, child molestation, marital rape, sexual exploitation of clients by professionals, exposure, and voyeurism. Sexual assaults are acts of violence, which are motivated primarily out of anger and/or a need to feel powerful by controlling, dominating, or humiliating the victim. Victims/survivors of sexual assault are forced, coerced, and/or manipulated to participate in unwanted sexual activity. Victims/survivors do not cause their assaults and are not to blame. Offenders are responsible for the assaults.

a.. Every minute in the United States, there are 1.3 forcible rapes of adult women; 78 women are forcibly raped each hour. Every day I, 871 women are forcibly raped, equating to 56,916 forcible rapes each month. (National Victim Center and Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, 1992)

b.. Rape is the most costly to its victims totaling $127,000,000,000 a year. (Miller, et al, 1996 National Center for Victims of Crime, 1998)

c.. Department of Justice estimates there were nearly one-half million sexual assaults in 1993. (Batian, 1994)

d.. According to a 1995 Department of Defense survey, 4% of all female soldiers said they had been a victim of a completed or attempted rape or sexual assault during their military service. (High, 1997, from the National Victim Center Statistical Overview, 1998) e.. In 1995 for every 1,000 persons age 12 or older, there occurred 2 rapes or attempted rapes. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victims Survey, 1995)

f.. In 1994, the rape/sexual assault rate for females was 3.7 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older. The rape/sexual assault rate for males was .2 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older (Bureau of Justice Statistics Criminal Victimization, 1997).

g.. 1 of 33 U.S. men has experienced an attempted or completed rape. (National Institute of Justice Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998)

h.. The most recent National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) by the Federal Government, for 1994, counts a total of 167,530 completed rapes of those age 12 and over; 162,640 of women and 4,890 of men. There were a total of 432,700 rapes, both completed and attempted, and sexual assaults of both genders, 35.8% were strangers and 64.2% were non-strangers. (Maguire and Pastore, 1996)

i.. In 1995 an estimated 72 of every 100,000 females in the country were reported rape victims. (Federal Bureau of Investigations, Uniform Crime Report, 1995)

j.. Results from the National Women’s Study show that 26.6% of women suffering from bulimia nervosa were raped at some point in their lives while only 13.3% of women who do not have binge 28 eating disorders or bulimia nervosa have been raped, (Dansky, et al, 1997 from the National Victim Center Statistical Overview, 1998)

k.. Eighty-four percent of rape survivors were less than 25 years old; nearly one third (32%) were between the ages of 11 and 17 years old; slightly more than one in five rapes (22%) occurred between the ages of 18 and 24. (National Victim Center and Crime Victims Research, 1992)

l.. A total of 110,000 people, age 12 or over, were raped in 1998 and a total of 333,000 people age 12 or over, were victims of completed and attempted rapes and sexual assaults (Rennision, 1999).

m.. About one in three women who were injured during a rape or physical assault required medical attention (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998).

FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: National Sexual Violence Resource Center