Characteristics of Sexual Victimization
• Analyze the different types of sexual assault and harassment and victim statistics.
Sexual violence is common. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS, 2015), a sexual assault happens every 98 seconds in the United States. One in six women and one in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (RAINN, n.d.). In addition, almost 50 percent (43.9 percent) of women and 23.4 percent of men have experienced forms of sexual violence during their lifetimes (Breiding, 2015). These forms of sexual violence include sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact (e.g., kissing or fondling), noncontact unwanted sexual experiences (e.g., being flashed or forced to view sexually explicit media), and stalking. Most victimizations occur at home or work, with around 70 percent occurring near the home or at school of victims or victims’ relatives (RAINN, n.d.).
Sexual violence can include sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact, and noncontact unwanted sexual experiences, such as being flashed, and stalking. Image: Proserpina. Authored by: Paolo Gamba.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/abukij/37405146081. License: CC-BY 2.0
For the purposes of this course, when talking about all of these types of victimization together, we will call it sexual violence. This module talks broadly about sexual violence. Discussion of sexual violence against specific populations is covered in subsequent modules. (Sexual abuse toward children and the elderly is discussed in the module “Victimized Children and Elderly” intimate partner violence is discussed in the module “Victims of Intimate or Family Violence”.) This module examines sexual violence, how it’s defined, its prevalence, social factors that contributed to its pervasiveness, as well as how society and the criminal justice system (CJS) has responded to it. This section examines the definitions and statistics associated with different types of sexual victimization.