This file was prepared for electronic distribution by the inforM staff.
Questions or comments should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu.


              STATISTICS ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

        SOURCE: KOSS, WOODRUFF, & KOSS -- A CRIMINOLOGICAL STUDY
                             AUGUST 1990

1 in 5 adult women will be raped at some point in their lives.

1 in 3.5 adult women will be attacked by a rapist.

1 in 7 of the women now in college have been raped.

1 in 4 of the women now in college have been attacked by a rapist.

More than half of college rape victims are attacked by dates.

More than 4 out of 5 rape victims know their attackers.

1 in 15 rape victims contracts a sexually transmitted disease as 
a result of being raped.

1 in 15 rape victims becomes pregnant as a result of being raped.

Only 7% of all rapes are reported to police. By comparison, the reporting rate 
for robbery is 53%; assault, 46%; and burglary, 52%.

Less than 5% of college women report incidences of rape to the police.

More than half of raped college women tell _no_ _one_ of their victimization.

The number of women raped in 1986 is fifteen times higher than officially 
reported in the National Crime Survey.

The number of college women raped in 1986 is fourteen times higher than 
officially reported in the National Crime Survey.

                            *******************

The definition of rape employed in these statistics is the one formulated by
the FBI for its Uniform Crime Report, which is the narrowest official 
definition.