Frequency of Sexual Assault

The statistics for sexual assault are staggering—every 2 minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. Using a definition of rape that includes forced vaginal, oral, and anal sex, the National Violence Against Women Survey found that 1 out of 6 U.S. women and 1 out of 33 U.S. men have experienced an attempted or completed rape as a child and/or adult. According to estimates, approximately 1.5 million women and 834,700 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States.⁴ 

Break the statistics down further and the numbers are just as disturbing:

• American Indian women suffer rape at twice the rate of any other race.⁵
• The risks of being sexually assaulted are at least one and a half times greater for individuals with disabilities than for people without disabilities of similar age and gender.⁶
• Among college students nationwide, between 20 and 25 percent of women reported experiencing completed or attempted rape.⁷ 
• Nearly half of all women who served in the military encountered physical or sexual violence while enlisted.⁸ 
• Between one-third and one-half of battered women are raped by their partners.⁹
• While living on the streets, 32.3 percent of homeless women, 27.1 percent of homeless men, and 38.1 percent of homeless transgender persons were sexually or physically assaulted.¹⁰

Despite an increase in research on rape during the past 30 years, gaps remain in understanding the extent of rape victimization because rape remains a largely underreported crime.¹¹ Victims who choose not to report sexual violence to law enforcement often fear retaliation, are too ashamed of or embarrassed about what happened to them, or did not consider the attack to be a police matter.¹²