Fact #1: 17.6 % of women in
the United States have survived a
completed or attempted rape. Of these,
21.6% were younger than age 12 when
they were first raped, and 32.4% were
between the ages of 12 and 17. (Full
Report of the Prevalence, Incidence,
and Consequences of Violence Against
Women, Findings from the National
Violence Against Women Survey, November,
2000)
Fact #2: 64% of women who
reported being raped, physically assaulted,
and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized
by a current or former husband, cohabiting
partner, boyfriend, or date. (Full
Report of the Prevalence, Incidence,
and Consequences of Violence Against
Women, Findings from the National
Violence Against Women Survey, November,
2000)
Fact #3: Only about half of
domestic violence incidents are reported
to police. African-American women
are more likely than others to report
their victimization to police Lawrence
A. Greenfeld et al. (1998). (Violence
by Intimates: Analysis of Data on
Crimes by Current or Former Spouses,
Boyfriends, and Girlfriends. Bureau
of Justice Statistics Factbook. Washington
DC: U.S. Department of Justice. NCJ
#167237. Available from National Criminal
Justice Reference Service.)
Fact #4: The FBI estimates
that only 37% of all rapes are reported
to the police. U.S. Justice Department
statistics are even lower, with only
26% of all rapes or attempted rapes
being reported to law enforcement
officials.
Fact #5: In the National Violence
Against Women Survey, approximately
25% of women and 8% of men said they
were raped and/or physically assaulted
by a current or former spouse, cohabiting
partner, or date in their lifetimes.
The survey estimates that more than
300,000 intimate partner rapes occur
each year against women 18 and older.
(Full Report of the Prevalence,
Incidence, and Consequences of Violence
Against Women, Findings from the National
Violence Against Women Survey, November,
2000)
Fact #6: The National College
Women Sexual Victimization Study estimated
that between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 college
women experience completed or attempted
rape during their college years (Fisher
2000).
Fact #7: Men perpetrate the
majority of violent acts against women
(DeLahunta 1997).
Fact #8: Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) calculation based on 2000 National Crime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice)
Fact #9: One out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. (Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey, National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998)
Fact #10: Factoring in unreported rapes, about 5% - one out of twenty - of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. 19 out of 20 will walk free. (Probability statistics based on US Department of Justice Statistics)
Fact #11: Fewer than half
(48%) of all rapes and sexual assaults
are reported to the police (DOJ
2001).
Fact #12: Sexual violence
is associated with a host of short-
and long-term problems, including
physical injury and illness, psychological
symptoms, economic costs, and death
(National Research Council 1996).
Fact #13: Rape victims often
experience anxiety, guilt, nervousness,
phobias, substance abuse, sleep disturbances,
depression, alienation, sexual dysfunction,
and aggression. They often distrust
others and replay the assault in their
minds, and they are at increased risk
of future victimization (DeLahunta
1997).
Fact #14: According to the
National Crime Victimization Survey,
more than 260,000 rapes or sexual
assaults occurred in 2000; 246,180
of them occurred among females and
14,770, among males (Department
of Justice 2001).
Fact #15: Sexual violence
victims exhibit a variety of psychological
symptoms that are similar to those
of victims of other types of trauma,
such as war and natural disaster
(National Research Council 1996).
A number of long-lasting symptoms
and illnesses have been associated
with sexual victimization including
chronic pelvic pain; premenstrual
syndrome; gastrointestinal disorders;
and a variety of chronic pain disorders,
including headache, back pain, and
facial pain (Koss 1992).Between
4% and 30% of rape victims contract
sexually transmitted diseases as a
result of the victimization (Resnick
1997).
Fact #16: More than half of
all rapes of women occur before age
18; 22% occur before age 12. (Full
Report of the Prevalance, Incidence,
and Consequences of Violence Against
Women, Findings from the National
Violence Against Women Survey, November,
2000)
Fact #17: In 2000, nearly
88,000 children in the United States
experienced sexual abuse (ACF 2002).
Fact #18: About 81% of rape
victims are white; 18% are black;
1% are of other races. (Violence
Against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
Fact #19: About half of all
rape victims are in the lowest third
of income distribution; half are in
the upper two-thirds. (Violence
against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
Fact #20: According to the
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey
(YRBSS), a national survey of high
school students, 7.7% of students
had been forced to have sexual intercourse
when they did not want to. Female
students (10%) were significantly
more likely than male students (5%)
to have been forced to have sexual
intercourse. Overall, black students
(10%) were significantly more likely
than white students (7%) to have been
forced to have sexual intercourse
(CDC 2002).
Fact #21: Females ages 12
to 24 are at the greatest risk for
experiencing a rape or sexual assault
(DOJ 2001).
Fact #22: Almost two-thirds of all rapes are committed by someone who is known to the victim. 73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger (— 38% of perpetrators were a friend or acquaintance of the victim, 28% were an intimate and 7% were another relative.) (National Crime Victimization Survey, 2005)
Fact #23: The costs of intimate
partner violence against women exceed
an estimated $5.8 billion. These costs
include nearly $4.1 billion in the
direct costs of medical care and mental
health care and nearly $1.8 billion
in the indirect costs of lost productivity
and present value of lifetime earnings.
(Costs of Intimate Partner Violence
Against Women in the United States,
Department of Health and Human Services,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
National Center for Injury Prevention
and Control, Atlanta, Georgia, March
2003).
Fact #24: Domestic violence
occurs in approximately 25-33% of
same-sex relationships. (NYC Gay
and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project,
October 1996.)
Fact #25: Boys who witness
their fathers' violence are 10 times
more likely to engage in spouse abuse
in later adulthood than boys from
non-violent homes. (Family Violence
Interventions for the Justice System,
1993)
Fact #26: An estimated 50,000
women and children are trafficked
into the United States annually for
sexual exploitation or forced labor.
(U.S. Central Intelligence Agency,
2000)
Fact #27: Somewhere in America
a woman is battered, usually by her
intimate partner, every 15 seconds.
(UN Study On The Status of Women,
Year 2000)
Fact #28: A University of
Pennsylvania research study found
that domestic violence is the leading
cause of injury to low-income, inner-city
Philadelphia women between the ages
of 15 to 44 - more common than automobile
accidents, mugging and rapes combined.
In this study domestic violence included
injuries caused by street crime.
Fact #29: Following the Supreme
Court's decision in 2000 to strike
down the civil-rights provision of
the Federal Violence Against Women
Act (ruling that only states could
enact such legislation), only two
states in the country (Illinois and
California) have defined gender-based
violence, such as rape and domestic
violence, as sex discrimination, and
created specific laws that survivors
can use to sue their perpetrators
in civil court. (Kaethe Morris
Hoffer, 2004).
Fact #30: A study reported
in the New York Times suggests that
one in five adolescent girls become
the victims of physical or sexual
violence, or both, in a dating relationship.
(New York Times, 8/01/01)
GLOBAL
STATISTICS
Fact #31: At least 60 million
girls who would otherwise be expected
to be alive are "missing"
from various populations, mostly in
Asia, as a result of sex-selective
abortions, infanticide or neglect.
(UN Study On The Status of Women,
Year 2000)
Fact #32: Globally, at least
one in three women and girls is
beaten or sexually abused in
her lifetime. (UN Commission
on the Status of Women, 2/28/00)
Fact #33: A recent survey
by the Kenyan Women Rights Awareness
Program revealed that 70% of those
interviewed said they knew neighbors
who beat their wives. Nearly 60%
said women were to blame for the
beatings. Just 51% said the men
should be punished. (The New
York Times, 10/31/97)
Fact #34: 4 million women
and girls are trafficked annually.
(United Nations)
Fact #35: An estimated one
million children, mostly girls,
enter the sex trade each year (UNICEF)
Fact #36: A 2005 World Health Organization study reported that nearly one third of Ethiopian women had been physically forced by a partner to have sex against their will within the 12 months prior to the study. (WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence Against Women, 2005)
Fact #37: In a study of
475 people in prostitution from
five countries (South Africa, Thailand,
Turkey, USA, and Zambia):
62% reported having been raped in
prostitution.
73% reported having experienced
physical assault in prostitution.
92% stated that they wanted to escape
prostitution immediately.
(Melissa Farley, Isin Baral,
Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin, "Prostitution
in Five Countries: Violence and
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder"
(1998) Feminism & Psychology
8 (4): 405-426)
Fact #38: The most common act of violence against women is being slapped—an experience reported by 9% of women in Japan and 52% in provincial Peru. Rates of sexual abuse also varies greatly around the world—with partner rape being reported by 6% of women from Serbia and Montenegro, 46% of women from provincial Bangladesh, and 59% of women in Ethiopia. (WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against Women, 2005)
Fact #39: So-called "honour
killings" take the lives of
thousands of young women every year,
mainly in North Africa, Western
Asia and parts of South Asia.
(UNFPA)
Fact #40: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that 2002 saw a 25% increase in “honor killings” of women, with 461 women murdered by family members in 2002, in 2 provinces (Sindh and Punjab) alone. (Pakistan Human Rights Commission, 2002)
Fact #41: More than 90 million
African women and girls are victims
of female circumcision or other
forms of genital mutilation. (Heise:
1994)
Fact #42: In eastern and souther Africa, 17 to 22% of girls aged 15 to 19 are HIV-positive, compared to 3 to 7% of boys of similar age. This pattern—seen in many other regions of the world—is evidence that girls are being infected with HIV by a much older cohort of men. (UNICEF/UNAIDS 2007)
Fact #43: : A 2005 study reported that 7% of partnered Canadian women experienced violence at the hands of a spouse between 1999 and 2004. Of these battered women, nearly one-quarter (23%) reported being beaten, choked, or threatened with a knife or gun. (Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2005)
Fact #44: In Zimbabwe, domestic
violence accounts for more than
60% of murder cases that go through
the high court in Harare. (ZWRCN)
Fact #45: a study in Zaria,
Nigeria found that 16 percent of
hospital patients treated for sexually
transmitted infections were younger than
5. (UNFPA)
