WHY IS EVERYONE WARNING YOU ABOUT 'STRANGER DANGER' ?

92% of rapes were committed by known assailants. About half of all rapes and sexual assaults against women are committed by friends and acquaintances -and 26% are by intimate partners.

 According to the U.S. Department of Justice: (All statistics are taken from: Violenceagainst Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)

    * One of every four rapes take place in a public area or in a parking garage.
    * 31% of female victims reported that the offender was a stranger.
    * 68% of rapes occur between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
    * At least 45% of rapists were under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
    * In 29% of rapes, the offender used a weapon.
    * In 47% of rapes, the victim sustained injuries other than rape injuries.
    * 75% of female rape victims require medical care after the attack.


In a national survey 27.7% of college women reported a sexual experience since the age of fourteen that met the legal definition of rape or attempted rape, and 7.7% of college men reported perpetrating aggressive behavior which met the legal definition of rape.

    * About 81% of rape victims are white; 18% are black; 1% are of other races. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
    * About half of all rape victims are in the lowest third of income distribution; half are in the upper two-thirds. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
    * There were 71 forcible rapes per 100,000 females reported to United States law enforcement agencies in 1996.
    * Data from the National Women's Study, a longitudinal telephone survey of a national household probability sample of women at least 18 years of age, show 683,000 women forcibly raped each year and that 84% of rape victims did not report the offense to the police.
    * Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
    * In 1995, 354,670 women were the victims of a rape or sexual assault. (NationalCrime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1996.)
    * Over the last two years, more than 787,000 women were the victim of a rape or sexual assault. (National Crime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S.Department of Justice, 1996.)
    * The FBI estimates that 72 of every 100,000 females in the United States wereraped last year. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Statistics, 1996.)

The National Crime Victimization Survey 1992 - 1992