Sexual Violence Statistics

National Domestic Violence Statistics *

* From the Family Violence Prevention Fund
Notice: The Family Violence Prevention Fund is not part of TCADSV and TCADSV has no control over its content or availability.

• One in five (21 percent) women reported she had been raped or physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime.¹
• Nearly one-fifth of women (18 percent) reported experiencing a completed or attempted rape at some time in their lives; one in 33 men (three percent) reported experiencing a completed or attempted rape at some time in their lives.²
• In 2000, 48 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed against people age 12 and over were reported to the police.³
• In 2001, 41,740 women were victims of rape/sexual assault committed by an intimate partner.⁴
• Rapes/sexual assaults committed by strangers are more likely to be reported to the police than rapes/sexual assaults committed by “nonstrangers,” including intimate partners, other relatives and friends or acquaintances. Between 1992 and 2000, 41 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed by strangers were reported to the police. During the same time period, 24 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed by an intimate were reported.⁵

Tennessee

In 2002, Tennessee law enforcement agencies received reports of the following:

• 2,308 forcible rapes
• 400 cases of forcible sodomy
• 235 incidents of sexual assault with an object
• 2,392 forcible fondlings
• 91 cases of incest
• 638 cases of statutory rape
• 1,937 incidents of stalking.

TBI Crime Statistics Unit, Crime in Tennessee 2002

One in nine women in Tennessee have been the victim of forcible rape sometime in their lifetime, and one in four women have been sexually assaulted at least once in their life. National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center, 2003.

¹The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, May 1999
²National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,, Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey, November 1998
³Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Reporting Crime to the Police, 1992-2000, March 2003
⁴Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003
⁵Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Reporting Crime to the Police, 1992-2000, March 2003