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| Preliminary estimates for 1995 indicate that 260,300 rapes and attempted rapes and nearly 95,000 sexual assaults and threats of sexual assaults were committed against persons 12 years of age or older. (Sex Offenses and Offenders: An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault, 1996. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington, D.C.
In 1995, 97,460 forcible rapes were reported to the police, the lowest total reported since 1989. (Ibid.) Of the number of reported rapes for 1995, the rate of rape was 76 per 100,000 women living in metropolitan areas as compared to 49 per 100,000 women living in rural areas. (Ibid.) Slightly under half (43.4 percent) of all rapes/sexual assaults were found to occur between 6 p.m. and midnight; and six out of every 10 rape/sexual assaults occurred in the homes of the victim, family members or friends. (Ibid.) Sexual assaults were found to be highest among residents age 16 to 19, low income residents, and urban residents. (Ibid.) The rate of rape among women was 10 percent lower in 1995 (80 per 100,000 versus 72 per 100,000) than in 1990. (Ibid.) About nine out of 10 rape/sexual assault victimizations involved a single offender | and with whom the victim had a prior relationship as a family member, intimate, or acquaintance. (Ibid.)
According to information reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, in Estimates from the Redesigned Survey (1995) and Violence Between Intimates (1994): former husbands, boyfriends, and ex-boyfriends committed 26 percent of rapes and sexual assaults. A large and increasing number of prison inmates are sexual offenders. In 1980, state prisons held 20,500 sex offenders. By 1994 over 88,000 sex offenders were held in state prisons , comprising nearly 10 percent of all state prison populations. (Finn, Peter, "Sexual Offender Community Notification, Research in Action", November 1996. U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Washington, D.C.)
Based on the findings of a national survey of 4,008 adult women, a 1992 study found that every year in our country 683,000 women are forcibly raped. (Kilpatrick, D.C., C. Edmunds, A. Seymour, April 1992., "Rape in America: A Report to the Nation," from "The National Women's Study" sponsored by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Victim Center and National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina, Washington, D.C.) Note: OVC makes no representation concerning the accuracy of data from non-Department of Justice sources |
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