In the US, 12 million men and women reportedly suffer from sexual abuse in a year. The data is from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, a newly launched health surveillance tool, which used random telephone surveys with 9,000 women and 7,400 men to collate information.
According to the survey results, nearly 1 in 5 women (18.3 percent) have been raped at one point in their lives. What is alarming is that more than half of these women (51.1 percent) reported being raped by an intimate partner, and 40.8 percent by an acquaintance. Men aren’t exactly spared from the statistics, either. Based on the findings, 1 in 71 men (1.4 percent) have been sexually abused, with more than half reporting that they were raped by an acquaintance and 15.1 percent by a stranger.
The numbers might not seem like much, but putting it in terms of actual figures will certainly put things in perspective. One year prior to the survey, one percent of women reported being raped by any perpetrator. That one percent is roughly equal to 1.3 million women.
Rape isn’t the only issue to worry about. The numbers for physical violence and stalking are just as grave. One in six women (16.2 percent) and 1 in 19 men (5.2 percent) reported having been stalked. Aside from being followed, being stalked could take the form of receiving unwanted phone calls and messages.
In times like these, it’s better to be twice as vigilant. There’s no telling when an attack might happen or from whom it might come from. We need to protect ourselves first, and if that means going home early, picking routes to and from work which may be longer but safer, saying no to drinking too much alcohol, or declining a party invitation from people you don't know very well, then so be it.
For more information on rape and sexual harassment and how you can deal with it, try these:
- 6 Things Every Woman Should Know about Date Rape
- How to Deal with Sexual Harassment
- Cubicle Coach: How to Deal with Harassment in the Workplace
(Photo by kahanaboy via Morguefile.com)
