I thought I would send this out to address the misconception about rape and rapists that I am consistantly seeing in this forum. These stats are from the CDC and apply to the American population, but I am pretty sure that they are close to the UK and Canadian stats as well, though I would not be confident about other countries and cultures. Actually, if anyone has stats from other countries, I would be curious to see how they compare. 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men have experienced attempted or compleated rape. 8 in 10 victims know the perpetrator. 54% of females who were raped experienced the rape before age 18, of these, 22% were raped before age 12. 64% of women and 16% of men reported being raped by an intimate partner. 19% of rapists are intimate partners. 27% are family members. 29% are relatives, friends or acquantances. 22% are strangers. The highest risk factors for victimization are: youth, drug or alcohol use, prior history of sexual violence, multiple sexual partners and poverty. Just some numbers to chew on.
The standard one that rapists are strangers who haunt streets at night looking for women to prey on. While this may be true in a small number of cases, this is not true for the majority of cases.
Thanks for posting this stuff. These probably should be considered base numbers for the US. From the research I did on this over the weekend I learned that due to polling methods this study may somewhat underreport occurances of rape. Comparing this against other data one thing is for sure: there is a high likelyhood that a woman will know her attacker. - Matt
It seems that an estimated 85% (!) of rapes go unreported. That seems high, but the thing about statistical black numbers is that they can never be proved or disproved. But, come to think of it, if most women who are raped are raped before they are 18 years old, then would the majority be confident enough to report it. Perhaps not, and definatly not if under the age of 12. Hmm. Perhaps real rape defense should start much younger, like during preteens?
The other issue, even when trying to get an idea of unreported rapes is the survey methods used that can influence the data one way or the other. Needless to say, the far more important things to understand is: 1. That intimate rape/assult is very prevalant. 2. The repeat rate for male attackers. The second one is critical as this type of behavior is a disease and if untreated will lead to relapse. A small percentage of the population who is currently free is purpotrating the majority of the crime. It's why its critical that more abuse is reported and socially dealt with. Just getting out of the relationship isn't enough because the preditor is still free in the social pool. - Matt
I agree, in this day and age, rape victims are often victimized twice. However investigating and prosecuting a rape isn't all cream and berries. You never ever know how a jury is going to swing.
That's not he only issue though. Rape victem 1 gets out of relationship with raper but doesn't seek any form of legal action. That leads Raper to get involved with other potential victems who end up repeating the pattern. Unfortunately, there are aspects of our society that still make it difficult for a woman to come forward. They are growing less, but stil, overall there are too many. - Matt
Those statistics are indeed disturbing. If you want UK stats follow the link posted in this thread on rape.
The important thing is to educate girls and young women about the definition of rape, and that consent should be unforced (both physically and psychologically). When it happens within a "relationship", the male partner tends to emotionally/psychologically dominate as well as physically dominate. A female in that situation often forces herself to justify the rape or to downplay the seriousness of the offence. At the extremes, this can lead to a relationship based on that violence or even forced "wife swapping" where the woman is compelled to sleep with other men or make pornography because of the pressure from her partner.
This misconception really annoys me. It changes the rapist in to some sort of bogeyman who lives in the bushes. This bogeyman is also what most self defense courses concentrate on. One of the most important thing a woman can do for self defense is be sure that her boyfriend/partner is not likely to victimise her.
There is a major problem with the way we educate young girls on safety. We jump up and down all the time telling them about "stranger danger" and I bet not once do we start talking about things like self esteem and self value. We also never really talk about what people they know should and shouldn't do and we definatly NEVER talk to them about the types of strangers they should go to if they need help. There is a huge gap between what we teach and reality.
I remember one of the most shocking things I've ever heard, is from an old instructor of mine who was also a full-time constable, and also did self-defense for women. He told the ladies in their first class that yelling "Fire!" initiates a quicker response than yelling "Rape!". Talk about disturbing. I hate to think that society is that de-sensitized. Just imagine, people are more concerned about damaged property than helping someone out of a violent situation. I only wish people realized that sexual assult is the act of a truly depraved coward, who suffer from deep insecurities, and think the only way to boost their own self-image, is to dominate/intimidate a "supposed" weaker person. The fact is, like any bully, they know what they are doing is wrong, and they will shrivel like arctic gonads at the first sign of trouble. I grew up in Canada, where it is illegal for women to carry pepper-spray or dye-spray...that being said, I still fully supported all of my female friends who were packing bear-repellent. When it comes down to it, better to have a misdermeanor and a fine that being attacked.
Actually in my rant above, I was meaning to echo Wrydolphin's data about rapists knowing there attackers ( I just got side-tracked). An excellent thread, if anyone has help/freephone numbers for support groups, post'em up.
This is all the international numbers I could find on the net. There are more cneters and I believe that most towns have a regional center to provide help. Australia: Rape Crisis Centre 1 800 424 017 USA: Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network 1 800 656 HOPE UK: Rape Crisis 0115 900 3560
