What is SAAM?
The month of April has been designated Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). The goal of SAAM is to raise public awareness about sexual violence (focusing on sexual assault and rape) and to educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence.
Here on the SAAM site, you will find information and materials for both the upcoming SAAM campaign as well as past campaigns. While the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) creates these campaign materials for SAAM, we encourage state and local organizations and groups focused on sexual violence awareness and prevention to tailor these campaign materials to their local communities.
By working together and pooling our resources during the month of April, we can highlight sexual violence as a major public health issue and reinforce the need for prevention efforts.
Some very scary facts from RAINN:
there were 248,300 sexual assaults in 2007
1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime
9 of every 10 rape victims were female in 2003
About 3% of American men — or 1 in 33 — have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime
15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12
7% of girls in grades 5-8 and 12% of girls in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused. (I, personally, am surprised that it's this low. I have a feeling that many of these young victims did not recognize their assaults as assaults.)
93% of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker.
Victims of sexual assault are:
3 times more likely to suffer from depression.
6 times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
13 times more likely to abuse alcohol.
26 times more likely to abuse drugs.
4 times more likely to contemplate suicide.
Every 2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted.
60% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police.
only about 6% of rapists ever serve a day in jail.
73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger.
38% of rapists are a friend or acquaintance.
28% are an intimate.
7% are a relative.
One positive fact:
Sexual assault has fallen by more than 60% in recent years. (THANK GOD!)
Let's bring a halt to sexual assault and rape, and let's do it the right way.
Thank you! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI am going to share this with people I love (and even some I dont) (:
Good post. It highlights why the crime you speak of is not a one time thing. It affects the victim much further than that moment.
ReplyDeletePS: If I was judge, and I hear the rapist use the "she had it coming" or "she did not dress enough", I probably tacked on another 40 years of prison time, no parole, on top of the long prison sentence he gets for the heinous crime.
Punisher
The 15% statistic probably comes from data collected by police, and the 7% statistic is self-report. So you're probably right. 5-6 grade is under 12 years old, but they probably don't count one assault as abuse.
ReplyDeleteIt's really unimaginable how messed up kids become after they're raped.
I'm with you on the stats for younger victims. I think that lot of children who are sexually assaulted DO think that something was wrong, but are afraid to tell their parents or teachers because they're afraid they'll get in trouble.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing these statistics.
Real men don't abuse women and children.
ReplyDeletePunisher
Um no, sexual assault HASN'T fallen. Well, for the free females of the world who are lucky enough to have the ability to leave their residence and report the abuse, it has, but for the millions of sex slaves, hundreds of thousands who suffer here in the United States of America, the abuse happens dozens of times a day. Never before has sexual slavery been as epidemic on a global scale than now-the entire slave trade is valued at an estimated 32 billion annually.
ReplyDeleteSo no dear, I highly doubt that sexual abuse has fallen for females. If anything, its increased. But its alright, optimism helps deal with reality.
I'm just going by the statistics that I've found. Please feel free to direct me to stats that say otherwise.
ReplyDeleteUgh. I just found out that the rapist of one the kids that I used to work with is due to get out of prison in January. Four years for raping a 5-year-old. Absolutely disgraceful.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely disgusting. Our society doesn't take sexual assault seriously.
ReplyDelete