Sexual Assault Program

HOW COMMON IS THIS?

National Statistics:
In 2009, victims ages 12 or older experienced a total of 125,910 rapes or sexual assaults.1

Eighty percent of rape or sexual assault victims in 2009 were female.2

Of female rape or sexual assault victims in 2009, 21 percent were assaulted by a stranger. Thirty-nine percent of offenders were friends or acquaintances of their victims, and 41 percent were intimate partners.3

In 2009, 55 percent of all rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law enforcement.4

During fiscal year 2009, there were a total of 3,230 reports of sexual assault involving military service members, representing an 11 percent increase over 2008. Of these reports, 2,516 were “unrestricted,” thus initiating an investigation process and opening access to support services, and 714 were “restricted,” allowing access to care without a formal investigation.5

In 2009, victim compensation programs paid $32 million for forensic sexual assault exams.6

In 2009, 41 percent of reported forcible rapes were cleared (usually by
arrest) by law enforcement.7

In a 2007 national survey, 4.5 percent of state and federal prison inmates reported experiencing sexual victimization. Ten facilities in the survey had victimization rates of 9.3 percent or higher, and six facilities had no reported incidents.8

A 2006 study determined that sexual assault cases that receive a SANE/SART response were 3.3 times more likely to result in the filing of charges than cases without a SANE/SART intervention, and SANE-only cases were 2.7 times more likely to result in charges being filed.9

In 2005, 42 percent of female rape victims experienced either drugfacilitated
or incapacitated rape.10

A study of sexual assault of adult males found that more than 10 percent of male victims had cognitive disabilities.11

Factors associated with a positive legal outcome in sexual assault cases include being examined within 24 hours of the assault, having been assaulted by a partner or spouse, having been orally assaulted, and having anogenital trauma.12

Rape survivors who had the assistance of an advocate were significantly more likely to have police reports taken and were less likely to be treated negatively by police officers. These victims also reported that they experienced less distress after their contact with the legal system.13

A study of North Carolina women found that women with disabilities were not significantly more likely than women without disabilities to have experienced physical assault alone within the past year. However, women with disabilities were more than four times as likely to have experienced sexual assault in the past year as women without disabilities.14

American Indian and Alaska Native women are twice as likely to experience rape or sexual assault as white, black, or Asian and Pacific Islander women.15

From 2000 to 2003, fewer than 20 percent of sexual assault cases reported to the police in Anchorage, Alaska, were forwarded for prosecution.16

A recent study found that of a nationwide sample of 2,000 Latinas, 17.2 percent had been sexually assaulted at some point during their lifetime. The majority of these sexual assault victims (87.5 percent) had also experienced another type of victimization (physical, threat, stalking, or witnessing abuse).17

Costs of Sexual Violence by Minnesota Department of Health.

Hands of Hope Resource Center Local Statistics:
During a one-year period from October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011, Hands of Hope Resource Center worked with 159 new sexual assault victims within Morrison and Todd Counties and 104 secondary victims. These cases at times involved working with the primary victim, the secondary victim, or in some cases both the primary and the secondary victim.

Of these new sexual assault cases, 68 of these were children as the primary victim.

• 53 Adult sexual assault
• 22 Adults abused as a child by a family member
• 8 Adults abused as a child by someone other than a family member
• 36 Child sexual abuse victims by a family member
• 29 Child sexual abuse victims by someone other than a family member
• 2 Sexual exploitation
• 3 Sexual harassment
• 6 Stalking

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1 Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Criminal Victimization, 2009,” (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2010), Table 1, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv09.pdf (accessed October 26, 2010).

2 Ibid., calculated from data on p. 5, Table 5.

3 Ibid., 7.

4 Ibid., 8.

5 “Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2009 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military,” (Arlington, VA: Department of Defense, 2010), 58, http://www.sapr.mil/media/pdf/reports/fy09_annual_report.pdf (accessed October 27, 2010).

6 National Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards, “Facts about Crime Victim Compensation,” (Alexandria, VA: NACVCB, 2010), http://www.nacvcb.org/NACVCB/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000000090/Statistical%20information%202010.doc
(accessed October 27, 2010).

7 Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States 2009, Offenses Cleared,” (Washington, DC: GPO, 2010), http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/clearances/ index.html (accessed November 12, 2010).

8 Allen J. Beck and Paige M. Harrison, “Sexual Victimization in State and Federal Prisons Reported by Inmates, 2007,” (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2007), 1-2, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svsfpri07.pdf (accessed August 24, 2010).

9 M. Elaine Nugent-Borokove et al., “Testing the Efficacy of SANE/SART Programs: Do They Make a Difference in Sexual Assault Arrest & Prosecution Outcomes?” A Report to the National Institute of Justice, viii, http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/214252.pdf (accessed August 24, 2010).

10 Dean G. Kilpatrick et al., “Drug-facilitated, Incapacitated, and Forcible Rape: A National Study,” (Charleston, SC: Medical University of South Carolina, 2007), 23, http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/219181.pdf (accessed August 24, 2010).

11 Lana Stermac et al., “Stranger and Acquaintance Sexual Assault of Adult Males,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 19, no. 8 (2004): 907.

12 Jennifer Wiley et al., “Legal Outcomes of Sexual Assault,” American Journal of Obstetric Gynecology 188, no. 6 (2003): 1,638.

13 Rebecca Campbell, “Rape Survivors’ Experiences with the Legal and Medical Systems: Do Rape Victim Advocates Make a Difference?” Violence Against Women 12 (2006): 30.

14 Sandra L. Martin et al., “Physical and Sexual Assault of Women with Disabilities,” Violence Against Women 12 (2006): 823.

15 S.W. Perry, “American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002,” (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics), Table 7, http://www.justice.gov/otj/pdf/ american_indians_and_crime.pdf (accessed August 24, 2010).

16 G. Matthew Snodgrass, “Sexual Assault Case Processing: A Descriptive Model of Attrition and Decision Making,” Alaska Justice Forum 23, no. 1:1.

17 Carlos A. Cuevas & Chiara Sabina, “Final Report: Sexual Assault Among Latinas (Salas) Study,” (unpublished NCJRS Grant Report: April 2010), http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/230445.pdf (accessed August 24, 2010).

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