Sexual Assault Statistics
“For women of color, reporting crimes of sexual assault are rooted in relationships
to institutions of power and commitments to community”
15x
Black Women
For every Black woman who reports rape, at least 15 Black women do not report.¹
7/10
Experience Long-term trauma
Approximately 70% of rape or sexual assault victims experience moderate to severe distress, a larger percentage than for any other violent crime.²
1 in 2
Transgender adults in the US
1 in 2 transgender people experience sexual violence.³
Every 68 Seconds…
an American is sexually assaulted. And every 9 minutes, that victim is a child.⁴
Only 33.9%
of sexual assaults were reported to law enforcement according to the National Crime Victim Survey, administered by the Bureau of Justice, in 2019.⁴
by race…
22% of non-Hispanic Black Women
and 33.5% of women of mixed race experienced an attempted or completed rape at some time in their lives, among adult women.⁵
40-60%
of black women report being subjected to coercive sexual contact by age 18.⁶
American Indians are 2x
as likely to experience a rape/sexual assault compared to all races.⁷
There is a scarcity of information and statistics about the sexual assault of Indigenous people, as they often face the highest barriers to reporting, resource access, and victim services. This scarcity in itself speaks to the lack of awareness and representation around the sexual assault of Native Americans. - miwsac.org
68% of Filipinas
and 50% of Indian and Pakistani women had experienced sexual violence by an intimate partner.¹⁰
Black girls
become trafficked at younger ages than their racial counterparts, according to a report on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Girls.⁸
18%
of Asian or Pacific Islander American women reported experiencing rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime in a national survey.⁹
14.6% of Hispanics
experienced an attempt or completed rape at some time in their lives, among adult women.⁵
other measures…
Immigrant women
are less likely to report their experiences of abuse than U.S. born women because language barriers between victims and police officers significantly affect the outcome of victims’ interactions with police and deter many immigrant and limited English proficient (LEP) women from reporting abuse.¹¹
Over 50%
of transgender people have experienced sexual violence at some point in their lives. This rate is nearly double (1 in 3 cisgender women) or triple (1 in 6 cisgender men) the commonly reported rates of sexual abuse for cisgender people.¹²
21% of TGQN
(transgender, genderqueer, nonconforming) college students have been sexually assaulted, compared to 18% of non-TGQN females, and 4% of non-TGQN.¹³
22%
of homeless transgender individuals were assaulted while staying in shelters.¹⁴
85% of victim advocates
surveyed by the NCAVP reported having worked with an LGBTQ survivor who was denied services because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.¹⁵
people with intellectual disabilities are more than
7 times
more likely to be victim-survivors of sexual assault than those without an intellectual disability.¹⁶
Only 3%
of sexual abuse cases involving people with developmental disabilities are ever reported.¹⁷
Intellectual Disabilities:
80% of women and 30% of men with intellectual disabilities have been sexually assaulted; and 50% of those women have been assaulted more than ten times.¹⁸
1 out of every 10
rape victims are male. 1 in 6 men are sexually abused in their lifetime.¹⁹
44% of lesbians and 61% of bisexual women
experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 35% of heterosexual women.²⁰
35.4% of asexual people
surveyed reported having experienced sexual contact that they did not consent to.²¹
Sources
1. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Hart & Rennison, 2003. U.S. Department of Justice
3. 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey Report. National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)
6. Black Women’s Blueprint, “The Truth Commission on Black Women and Sexual Violence,” 2012
8. Lisa Goldblatt Grace & Francine T. Sherman, The System Response to the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Girls, in Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research Policy, and Practice, 336 (Francine T. Sherman & Francine H. Jacobs eds., 2011).
10. APIGBV, Intimate Partner Violence and Help-Seeking (2011).
12. FORGE, 2005, Sexual Violence in the Transgender Community Survey, multiple surveys.
13. David Cantor, Bonnie Fisher, Susan Chibnall, Reanna Townsend, et. al. Association of American Universities (AAU), Report on the AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct (September 21, 2015).
14. J.M. Grant, L.A. Mottet, J. Tanis, J. Harrison, J.L. Herman, and M. Keisling, 2011, Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, Washington, DC: National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, accessed Feb. 4, 201
15. National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 2010, Hate Violence Against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Communities in the United States in 2009, New York, NY: National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.
17. Valenti-Hein, D., Schwartz, L. 1995. The Sexual Abuse Interview for those with Developmental Disabilities.
18. Johnson, I., and Sigler, R. (2000). Forced sexual intercourse among intimates. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15(1), 95-108.
19. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Female Victims of Sexual Violence, 1994-2010 (2013).