Preventing Sexual Violence

"Preventing Sexual Violence

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Sexual violence is a serious public health problem in the United States. Help promote healthy, respectful relationships this month with CDC’s resources.

Facts about Sexual Violence

Sexual violence is any sexual activity where consent is not freely given. Sexual violence affects millions of people each year in the United States.  The 2015 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) reports

• More than 1 in 3 women and nearly 1 in 4 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact at some point in their lives.
• Nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 38 men have experienced completed or attempted rape in their lifetimes.

Sexual Violence is Preventable

Sexual violence impacts health in many ways and can lead to short and long-term physical and mental health problems. Victims may experience chronic pain, headaches, and sexually transmitted diseases. They are often fearful or anxious and may have problems trusting others. Promoting healthy and respectful relationships can help reduce sexual violence.

If you are or someone you know is a victim of sexual violence:

• Contact the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE. Help is free, confidential, and available 24/7. Get information at RAINNExternal.
• Contact your local emergency services at 9-1-1.

Prevention Resources

CDC works to prevent sexual violence before it happens.

• CDC’s technical package, STOP SV: A Technical Package to Prevent Sexual Violence Cdc-pdf[2.85 MB], can help states and communities prevent sexual violence. The technical package is a collection of strategies that represent the best available evidence to prevent or reduce sexual violence.
• Sexual Violence on Campus: Strategies for Prevention Cdc-pdf[3.49 MB] outlines five components needed for prevention efforts to have greater impact on prevention of sexual violence on college campuses.
• Reporting on Sexual Violence Media Guide Cdc-pdf[3.62 MB] includes definitions and key terms, statistics, language considerations, and resources to aid in reporting about sexual violence..."
  Sexual violence

Sexual Violence Prevention

"April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Sexual violence is a serious public health problem that affects millions of women and men. In the United States, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact at some point in their lives. Statistics underestimate the problem because many victims do not tell the police, family, or friends about the violence.

CDC’s goal is to stop sexual violence before it begins.

Understanding Sexual Violence

Sexual violence is any sexual activity where consent is not freely given. This includes completed or attempted sex acts that are against the victim’s will or involve a victim who is unable to consent through use of force or alcohol/drug facilitation.

Other forms of sexual violence are:

• Non-physically pressured unwanted sex
• Unwanted sexual contact (intentional sexual touching), or
• Non-contact, unwanted sexual experiences (such as verbal sexual harassment)..."
  Sexual violence

Preventing sexual violence

"Prevent sexual violence on college campuses.

Preventing sexual violence (SV) of all types requires a shift in culture and climate. Primary prevention—preventing violence before it occurs—is difficult work and change takes time. Culture change doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen. To address this problem, the White House established the Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault in 2014. The task force had a mandate to strengthen federal enforcement efforts and to provide schools with additional tools to help prevent SV on their campuses..."
Preventing sexual violence

Sexual Violence Prevention

"Sexual violence is not inevitable; it is a public health problem that can be prevented.

Sexual violence can result in physical injuries and psychological impacts that can be severe, long lasting, and costly. But sexual violence is not inevitable; it is a public health problem that can be prevented. CDC created a technical package for states and communities to apply the best available evidence in preventing sexual violence. Learn more about CDC's technical package to prevent sexual violence..."
Sexual violence

Sexual violence

"Sexual violence is a very serious public health problem that affects millions of women and men.

In the United States, 1 in 5 women have experienced completed or attempted rape, and about 1 in 15 men have been made to penetrate someone in their lifetime. Most victims first experienced sexual violence before age 25.

Statistics underestimate the problem because many victims do not tell the police, family, or friends about the violence.

Our ultimate goal is to call attention to and stop sexual violence before it begins..."
Sexual violence

Guidance on Identifying and Preventing Gender Bias in Law Enforcement Response to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

"Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced today a new guidance from the Justice Department designed to help law enforcement agencies prevent gender bias in their response to sexual assault and domestic violence, highlighting the need for clear policies, robust training and responsive accountability systems.

“Gender bias, whether explicit or implicit, can severely undermine law enforcement’s ability to protect survivors of sexual and domestic violence and hold offenders accountable,” said Attorney General Lynch.  “This guidance – developed in collaboration with law enforcement leaders and advocates from across the country – is designed to help state, local, and tribal authorities more fairly and effectively address allegations of domestic violence and sexual assault.  In the days and months ahead, the Department of Justice will continue to work with our law enforcement partners nationwide to ensure that they have the tools and resources they need to prevent, investigate, and prosecute these horrendous crimes.”

Today’s guidance – which reflects input from a wide array of stakeholders, including police leaders, victim advocates and civil rights advocates – aims to enhance the Justice Department’s partnership with law enforcement officers who work tirelessly to protect their communities, advance bias-free policing and uphold the civil rights of the people they serve.  The Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), the Civil Rights Division and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) collaborated to produce the guidance...."
Identifying & preventing gender bias

Sexual Violence at Institutions of Higher Education

"In recent years, a number of high-profile incidents of sexual violence at institutions of higher education (IHEs) have heightened congressional and administration scrutiny of the policies and procedures that IHEs currently have in place to address campus sexual violence and how these policies and procedures can be improved. Campus sexual violence is widely acknowledged to be a problem. However, reported data on the extent of sexual violence at IHEs varies considerably across studies for a variety of methodological and other reasons. Victims of sexual violence may suffer from a range of physical and mental health conditions including injuries, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidality, and substance abuse. College students who are the victims of sexual violence may experience a
decline in academic performance, and they may drop out, leave school, or transfer.."
Sexual violence on campus

Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence, Stalking, and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization — National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, United States, 2011

"This report examines sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization using data from 2011. The report describes the overall prevalence of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization; racial/ethnic variation in prevalence; how types of perpetrators vary by violence type; and the age at which victimization typically begins. For intimate partner violence, the report also examines a range of negative impacts experienced as a result of victimization, including the need for services..."
Rape and Sexual violence

Intimate Partner Violence in the United States — 2010

"Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health problem. IPV includes physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, and psychological aggression (including coercive tactics) by a current or former intimate partner. In additionto the immediate impact, IPV has lifelong consequences. A number of studies have shown that beyond injury and death, victims of IPV

are more likely to report a range of acute and chronic mental and physical health conditions.."

Intimate partner violence

National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey:2010 Summary Report

"This report presents information related to several types of violence that have not previously been measured in a national populationbased survey, including types of sexual violence other than
rape; expressive psychological aggression and coercive control, and control of reproductive or
sexual health. This report also provides the first ever simultaneous national and state-level prevalence estimates of violence for all state..."

Vice President Biden Announces New Administration Effort to Help Nation's Schools Address Sexual Violence
"Washington, D.C. – Today[4/4/11], Vice President Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan introduced comprehensive guidance to help schools, colleges and universities better understand their obligations under federal civil rights laws to prevent and respond to the problem of campus sexual assault. The new guidance, announced at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire, makes clear the legal obligations under Title IX of any school, college or university receiving federal funds to respond promptly and effectively to sexual violence. The guidance also provides practical examples to aid educators in ensuring the safety of their students..."
Click here for additional information.

Sexual Victimization In Juvenile Facilities Reported By Youth, 2008-09
"Presents data from the 2008-09 National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC), conducted in 195 juvenile confinement facilities between June 2008 and April 2009, with a sample of over 9,000 adjudicated youth. The report provides national-level and facility-level estimates of sexual victimization by type of activity, including youth-on-youth sexual contact, staff sexual misconduct, and level of coercion. It also includes an analysis of the experience of sexual victimization, characteristics of youth most at risk to victimization, where the incidents occur, time of day, characteristics of perpetrators, and nature of the injuries. Finally, it includes estimates of the sampling error for selected measures of sexual victimization and summary characteristics of victims and incidents. The report and appendix tables provide a listing of results for sampled state and large locally or privately operated facilities, as required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-79). Facilities are listed alphabetically by state with estimated prevalence rates of sexual victimization as reported by youths during a personal interview and based on activity in the 12 months prior to the interview or since admission to the facility, if shorter.

Highlights include the following:

This report presents findings from the first National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC), representing 26,550 adjudicated youth held nationwide in state operated and large locally or privately operated juvenile facilities. Overall, 91% of youth in these facilities were male; 9% were female.
About 12% of youth in state juvenile facilities and large non-state facilities (representing 3,220 youth nationwide) reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another youth or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission, if less than 12 months.
About 2.6% of youth (700 nationwide) reported an incident involving another youth and 10.3% reported an incident involving staff..."

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
"Sexual assault takes many forms—it is any unwanted sexual contact, including rape, attempted rape, and child sexual abuse. It can affect people of any gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or ability.

According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, 1 in 6 American women has been the victim of rape or attempted rape.

For more information, visit the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women at www.ovw.usdoj.gov."

Sexual Violence Reported by Juvenile Correctional Authorities, 2005-06
"Presents data from the 2005 and 2006 Survey on Sexual Violence, an administrative records collection of incidents required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-79) of youth-on-youth and staff-on-youth sexual violence reported to juvenile correctional authorities. The report provides counts of sexual violence, by type, for juvenile correctional facilities. The report also provides an in-depth analysis of substantiated incidents, including where the incidents occur, time of day, number and characteristics of victims and perpetrators, nature of the injuries, impact on the victims and sanctions imposed on the perpetrators. The appendix tables include counts of sexual violence, by type, for all state systems, and all sampled locally or privately operated facilities.

Highlights include the following:

* Approximately 1 in 5 of reported allegations of juvenile sexual violence were substantiated.
* Youth-on-youth incidents were more likely to occur in the victim’s room (37%) or in a common area (32%), compared to staff-on-youth incidents (7% and 13%, respectively).
* Victims received physical injuries in 12% of substantiated incidents of youth-on-youth sexual violence; about half received some form of medical follow-up."

Hearing — Rape as a Weapon of War: Accountability for Sexual Violence in Conflict
"The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law on “Rape as a Weapon of War: Accountability for Sexual Violence in Conflict” for Tuesday, April 1, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building."
Webcast of hearing available.