Staggering Statistic for Sexual Victimization
With Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April!) and Blog Against Sexual Violence Day right around the corner (April 5!), this statistic is both timely and appalling:
Researchers at the University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions report that 18 percent of young women recruited into a study experienced sexual victimization in a two-year period. Victimization was defined as unwanted sexual contact, verbally coerced sex, rape or attempted rape. Among this group, the majority (approximately 66 percent) stated that their victimization was perpetrated by an intimate partner.
Importantly, it was found that sexual victimization of women by intimate partners and non-intimate partners are two completely separate phenomena. Two different sets of risk factors exist for victimization by two different types of perpetrators. (source)
Eighteen percent! That’s nearly 1 in 5 young women.
Other important findings from the study are the circumstances surrounding such incidents:
The factors that predicted victimization from intimates were different than the factors that predicted victimization from non-intimates. Predictors of intimate partner victimization included being married or living together, prior intimate partner victimization and difficulty refusing a partner’s request for sex. Thus, women who experience this type of sexual victimization are at risk of experiencing it multiple times, by virtue of remaining in relationships with sexually aggressive men. (source)
Educate yourself and the women in your life about what to do about sexual violence and steps you can take to protect yourself. Get more information and resources from the Sexual Violence Fact Sheet.
Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King
Tags: April, Blog-Against-Sexual-Violence-Day, Health, rape, sexual-assault, Sexual-Assault-Awareness-Month, sexual-violence, victimization, violence-against-women, woman, women, Womens-HealthRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Sex
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