Is this Sexual Assault?

What To Look For

What is sexual assault?

The term sexual assault refers to sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the victim. Some forms of sexual assault include:

  • Attempted rape
  • Fondling or unwanted sexual touching
  • Forcing a victim to perform sexual acts, such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator’s body
  • Penetration of the victim’s body, also known as rape

What is rape?

Rape is a form of sexual assault, but not all sexual assault is rape. The term rape is often used as a legal definition to specifically include sexual penetration without consent. For its Uniform Crime Reports, the FBI defines rape as “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” To see how your state legally defines rape and other forms of sexual assault, visit RAINN’s State Law Database.

What is force?

Force doesn’t always refer to physical pressure. Perpetrators may use emotional coercion, psychological force, or manipulation to coerce a victim into non-consensual sex. Some perpetrators will use threats to force a victim to comply, such as threatening to hurt the victim or their family or other intimidation tactics.

Sexual assault happens when someone touches another person in a sexual manner without their consent.

Or when someone makes another person take part in a sexual activity with them without that person’s consent. It includes unwanted kissing and sexual touching.

Sexual assault can take many different forms, but one thing remains the same: it’s never the victim’s fault.

General Sexual Assault Statistics

  • In the United States of America, every 2 minutes a woman is raped.
  • 1 in 6 women and 1 out of 33 men have at some point experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.
  • Around the world, sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes.
  • In the United States of America, 23% of female enrolled students have experienced sexual assault.
  • On a worldwide level, 15 million girls aged between 15 years to 19 years experienced forced sex or rape.
  • Indigenous women are 3 times more likely to experience sexual assault than non-indigenous women.
  • Women with disabilities are 2 times more likely to face sexual violence than non-disabled women.
  • It is a myth that rape can’t happen between husband and wife. Rather, the act must be carried out on a consent basis.
  • The estimated lifetime cost of rape for every victim is $122,461.
  • 75% of rape cases are never reported to the police.
  • 70% of sexual assaults happen in residential places of victims.
  • Around the world, sexual harassment cases increased in cases of work from home for women resulting by 23%.
  • Girls and women between 12 years to 34 years are at the highest risk of being sexually harassed.
  • 80% of the rapes are performed by the victim’s acquaintance
  • According to Sexual assault statistics, the rate of false rape cases in the United States of America is 10%.
  • The majority of victims of rape are women.
  • Women are at risk of 54% of sexual harassment.
  • As of result of rape, victims are more likely to get addicted to rape than the general public, further resulting in 10 times more use of major drugs, 6 times more use of cocaine, and 3.4 times more use of marijuana.
  • 1 out of 10 women experiences marital rape.
  • 7 out of 10 rapes are committed by the victim’s acquainted persons.

Sexual Assault Statistics By Demographic

Women

  • 8% of women who got raped were Asian or pacific Islanders by ethnic background.
  • 6% were Hispanic women victims, and 18.8% were African-American women.
  • 4% of women belonged to mixed ethnic backgrounds and 34.1% of women were American Indian or Alaskan native women.
  • Bisexual women are at the highest risk of sexual violence than straight women.

Men

  • 8% of men who were raped were white by ethnic background.
  • 3% were African- American and 4.4% reported having mixed ethnic backgrounds.

By children

  • 1 out of 5 girls and 1 out of 20 boys become victims of child sexual violence.
  • Children aged between 7 years to 13 years are at a high risk of sexual harassment.
  • On the lifetime average, children in the United States of America aged 14 years to 17 years have already become a victim.

By Age

  • Individuals, mainly women aged between 18 years to 34 years are at a high risk of rape resulting in 54%.
  • Girls aged between 12 years to 17 years have a 15% risk of sexual assault.
  • 28% of the risk is experienced by women and men between the age of 35 years to 64 years.
  • Women 65 years and above have a 3% risk of getting sexually harassed.

By Gender

  • In the United States of America, 1 in 33 men experienced attempted or completed rape.
  • As per the sexual assault statistics, considering the lifetime case of rape, 10% of the victims are men.
  • 9 out of 10 victims are females.
  • 1 in 6 American women experienced attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.