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Questions and Answers

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How common is rape?

  • More than half (51.1%) of female victims of rape reported being raped by an intimate partner and 40.8% by an acquaintance; for male victims, more than half (52.4%) reported being raped by an acquaintance and 15.1% by a stranger.

     — Black et al., 2011
  • Approximately 1 in 5 (21.3% or an estimated 25.5 million) women in the U.S. reported completed or attempted rape at some point in their lifetime, including completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration, or alcohol/drug facilitated completed penetration. About 2.6% of U.S. men (an estimated 2.8 million) experienced completed or attempted rape victimization in their lifetime.

     — Smith et al., 2018
  • Thirty-seven (37%) of the total violent victimization experienced was identified as rape, sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated assault.

     — Morgan and Oudekerk, 2019
  • The self-reported incidence of rape or sexual assault more than doubled from 1.4 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older in 2017 to 2.7 in 2018.

     — Morgan and Oudekerk, 2019
  • Based on data from the survey, it is estimated that 734,630 people were raped (threatened, attempted, or completed) in the United States in 2018.

     — Morgan and Oudekerk, 2019