HERE'S THE PROBLEM
The amount of violence is far greater than we have been led to believe.
1.5 million women will be raped this year in the USA(1). That’s 1.5M hearts and bodies that will be damaged in the next 10 years, 15 million(2).
717,000 college students(3)(4) (women and men) will experience sexual violence in the form of a complete or attempted rape (also known as “ACR”(5)). This often changes their lives forever.
5.7M people will be the target of violence(6) such as assault, rape, stalking, robbery, sexual assault of a minor, and aggravated assault. An additional 10-30M people will be indirectly affected by the victimization of a loved one(7).
Now you’ve seen the rest of the iceberg! Well, some of it anyway. You may have heard or read other numbers, even from distinguished organizations and agencies. We believe that many of their numbers are wrong or misleading. Find out more
in our film “15 Million Hearts”.
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In case you want additional detail on the numbers...
(1) Strider SFV™ Lab did a survey in 2010 and asked 140 women about their experiences with violence. The results suggested 1.85M women were being raped annually in the USA. However, much more substantial was the 2015 CDC Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence, Stalking, and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization - National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, their most recent year, the CDC surveyed about 5,700 women and based on this, they estimated that 1.5M women are being raped each year. Their numbers vary somewhat from year to year, but 1.5M is also their average since 2010. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/NISVS-StateReportBook.pdf
(2) Assuming no change in the current environment of sexual violence, and we see no reason to anticipate a major change, than 1.5M x 10 years = 15 million women who will be raped in the next ten years.
(3) David Cantor, Bonnie Fisher, Susan Chibnall, Reanna Townsend, et. al. Association of American Universities (AAU), Report on the AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct (September 21, 2015).
(4) Formula is based the Campus Rape Predictor™, Rodrigues, Bauckman & Amis ©2017
(5) “ACR” which stands for “attempted or completed rapes” is the most useful barometer of sexual violence for three reasons: 1. Rape and attempted rape are apex crimes, 2. most laws concerning these crimes are reasonably well-defined despite differences state-to-state, and 3. some of the most reliable studies use ACR to generate statistics.
(6) Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016, While BJS is not estimating but reporting past events, we believe this number will not change significantly in the future. So it’s reasonable to expect another 5.7M violent interactions next year as well. In addition, an argument could be made that this number is still too low concerning the BJS’s inclusion of minor interviews as well as it’s consistent underreporting of sexual violence-against-women. There were also 3.2M burglaries in 2016 and these are not classified as violent crimes. However, a predator who breaks into your home has put you in extreme danger. Many robberies turn into crimes of pedophlia, rape, and aggravated assault. Therefore, 8.9M might be a more reasonable number for “dangerous and violent interactions”. https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv16re.pdf
(7) This number is a guesstimate based on a social worker with over 3,000 sexual assault cases who told us that 2-5 lives will be changed significantly or dramatically after a violent attack on a loved one. Immediate family and relationship partners are usually the ones most affected.