From U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights

Sexual Violence Statistics and Effects

     • Acts of sexual violence are vastly under-reported.¹ Yet, data show that our nation's young students suffer from acts of sexual violence early and the likelihood that they will be assaulted by the time they graduate is significant. For example:

      Recent data shows nearly 4,000 reported incidents of sexual battery and over 800 reported rapes and attempted rapes occurring in our nation's public high schools.² Indeed, by the time girls graduate from high school, more than one in ten will have been physically forced to have sexual intercourse in or out of school. ³
         When young women get to college, nearly 20% of them will be victims of attempted or actual
sexual assault, as will about 6% of undergraduate men. ⁴

     • Victims of sexual assault are more likely to suffer academically and from depression, post-traumatic
stress disorder, to abuse alcohol and drugs, and to contemplate suicide. ⁵

¹ For example, see HEATHER M. KARJANE, ET AL., SEXUAL ASSAULT ON CAMPUS: WHAT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES ARE DOING ABOUT IT 3 (Nat'l.
Institute of Justice, Dec. 2005).
² SIMONE ROBERS, ET AL., INDICATORS OF SCHOOL CRIME AND SAFETY 104 (U.S. Dep't of Education & U.S. Dep't of Justice, Nov. 2010), available
at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011002.pdf.
³ EATON, D. K., KANN, L., KINCHEN, S., SHANKLIN, S., ROSS, J., HAWKINS, J., ET AL., YOUTH RISK BEHAVIOR SURVEILLANCE-UNITED STATES 2009,
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
⁴ CHRISTOPHER P. KREBS ET AL., THE CAMPUS SEXUAL ASSAULT STUDY FINAL REPORT xiii, 5-5 (Nat'l. Criminal Justice Reference Service, Oct.
2007), available at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/221153.pdf.
⁵ For example, see WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, WORLD REPORT ON VIOLENCE AND HEALTH 162-164 (Etienne G. Krug, et al. eds., 2002),
available at http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2002/9241545615_eng.pdf; CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, UNDERSTANDING SEXUAL
VIOLENCE: FACT SHEET 1 (2011), available at http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/SV_factsheet_2011-a.pdf.