Statistics from New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NYSCASA)

One in four women will be raped in their lifetime.

Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes. (National Crime Victimization Survey. 1994. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.)

According to a National Crime Victimization Survey, and ongoing survey of households that interviews about 80,000 people in 43,000 households twice annually, there were approximately 250,000 rapes and sexual assaults in the United States in 2001. Of the 250,000, 66% of the rapes and sexual assaults were committed by a person the victim knew. (Rennison, Callie. Criminal Victimization 2001 Changes 2000-2001 with Trends 1993-2001. 2002. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.)

Approximately 28% of victims are raped by husbands or boyfriends, 35% by acquaintances, and 5% by other relatives. (Violence by Intimates. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994.)

In 1999, there were an estimated 826,000 victims of maltreatment across the nation. Of that number, approximately 93,338 (11.3%) were sexually abused. (Child Maltreatment 1999; Reports from the states to the national Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. Children’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)

Almost one in five of young Internet users received an unwanted sexual solicitation in the past year, and of those solicitations, almost half were not revealed to anyone. (Highlights of the Youth Internet Safety Survey. 2001. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.)

Among college women, 9 in 10 victims of rape and sexual assault knew their offender. Almost 13% of completed rapes, 35% of attempted rapes, and 22.9% of threatened rapes happened during a date. (Fisher, Bonnie, Cullen, Francis, Turner, Michael. The Sexual Victimization of College Women. 2000. National Institute of Justice and Bureau of Justice Statistics, U. S. Department of Justice.)

For the reporting year of 1999-2000, the New York State Department of Health reported there were 21,026 contacts  made to NYS Rape Crisis Center hotlines. (Rape Crisis Projects Service Activity 1991-1992 to 1999-2000. Bureau of Women’s Health, New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.)

In 2000 in the state of New York the Division of Criminal Justice Services reports there was a total of 23,655 sexual assaults reported to various law enforcement agencies-3,352 forcible rapes  and 20,303 sex offenses. (Unified Crime Reports System February 2003. New York State Division  of Criminal Justice Services.)

In 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, there was only a 39% reporting rate of sexual assault survivors. (Rennison, Callie. Criminal Victimization 2001 Changes 2000-2001 with Trends 1993-2001. 2002. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.)

Some teen stats:

1.8 million of the 22.3 million US adolescents (ages 12-17) have been victims of a serious sexual assault.

42% of surveyed teens believed that is a girl or guy had been drinking and are a little drunk, then it’s not sexual assault if he forced or coerces her to have sex. (Attitude and Behavior Assessment Among Wisonsin High School Students WCASA Media Campaign, Nov. 2000.)

42% of girls younger than 15 years old reported that their first intercourse was nonconsensual. (Abma,JC, Driscoll, A., Moore, K. Young Women’s Degree of Control Over First Intercourse: An Exploratory Analysis. Family Planning Perspective. Vol. 30.19998.