The article provides a comparison of annual incident rates of rape and physical assault against women as estimated by the National Violence Against Women Survey; co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute of Justice and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The author indicates that the data sets were made as comparable as possible via several data restrictions. These restrictions included restricting the NCVS data to include only incidents of rape (to the exclusion of other sexual assaults) and physical assault against women 18 years of age and older. The methodological differences of each survey, that made comparisons tenuous, are described and recommendations for policy are provided.
These summaries were written by SVPEP staff and are based on original papers published within the last 6 years. The information available on this web site is provided as a public service and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the Arizona Department of Health Services, or the University of Arizona. To conduct an individual search or locate older articles use the Search Summary Database which includes over 600 articles related to sexual violence.
Statistics
Bachman, R. (2000). A comparison of annual incidence rates and contextual characteristics of intimate-perpetrated violence against women from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS). Violence Against Women, 6, 839-867.
Basile, K. C., Chen, J., Black, M.C., & Saltzman L. E. (2007). Prevalence and characteristics of sexual violence victimization among U.S. adults, 2001-2003. Violence and Victims, 22, 437-448.
Between 2001 and 2003, a nationally representative telephone survey was conducted by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control as part of the Second Injury Control and Risk Survey (ICARIS-2). The interviews were either in English or Spanish and targeted U.S. adults (age 18 years or older). With 9,684 completed surveys, the national prevalence rate for sexual victimization by sex, age, race/ethnicity, and type of perpetrator were estimated. The findings indicated that 1.7% of the U.S. population experienced unwanted sexual activity in the past 12 months, 6.5% of the population experienced forced sex at least once in their lifetime, and 34.9% of first victimizations occurred prior to the age of 18 in the United States. The authors recommended more emphasis on primary prevention efforts for children and adolescents as a means to minimize sexual violence.
Methodology and questions differed between the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS )and ICARIS-2; therefore, direct comparison between the two studies should be made cautiously.
Boba, R. & Lilley, D. (2009). Violence against women act (VAWA) funding. A nationwide assessment of effects of rape and assault. Violence Against Women, 15, 168-185.
Data from 1996 to 2002 was assessed for changes in annual rates of crime. The focus of the analysis was on jurisdictions that received VAWA funding. Declines in rape and aggravated assault were found after controlling for receipt of other federal funds and demographic factors that may have influenced crime rates. Findings suggested that a 1% increase in VAWA funding was associated with a 0.066% reduction in rape and 0.08% reduction in aggravated assault.
Not possible to determine if funding caused or was just correlated with reductions of rape and aggravated assault.
Campbell, J. C. (2000). Promise and perils of surveillance in addressing violence against women. Violence Against Women, 6, 705-727.
They can also decrease research costs and can be established in legal, health, and social service systems – the fields that interact with victims. However, a surveillance system for sexual assault would not be a perfect system. The author examines issues specific to surveillance in this field, including its definitions, prevalence variations, sensitivity and specificity issues, and safety concerns. The author concludes by offering some creative approaches for addressing these problems.
Magid, D. J., Houry, D., Koepsell, T. D., Ziller, A., Soules, M. R., & Jenny, C. (2004). The epidemiology of female rape victims who seek immediate medical care: Temporal trends in the incidence of sexual assault and acquaintance rape. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 19, 3-12.
This is a study comparing the number of female sexual assault victims treated in a Colorado county’s emergency department between July and November of 1974 and 1991. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant increase in the incidence of sexual assault between 1974 and 1991. As predicted, there was a 60% increase in sexual assault incidence with this increase primarily caused by an increase in sexual assaults involving known assailants. Moreover, victims in the emergency department reported more physical force and physical injury in 1991 when compared to 1974. Additional differences between study years (e.g., incidence of oral/anal intercourse during assaults as well as administration of pregnancy prophylaxis and antibiotics) are also presented. Implications of these findings concerning rates of acquaintance rape, reporting rates, and changes in treatment practices are discussed.
Malamuth, N. M., Addison, T., & Koss, M. (2000). Pornography and sexual aggression: Are there reliable effects and can we understand them? Annual Review of Sex Research, 11, 26-91.
Their responses delineate the arguments and data presented in those commentaries; integrate the findings of several meta-analytic summaries of experimental and naturalistic research; and statistically analyze a large representative sample. The responses support the existence of reliable associations between frequent pornography use and sexually aggressive behaviors, particularly for violent pornography and/or for men at high risk for sexual aggression. The authors suggest that relatively aggressive men interpret and react to the same pornography differently than do non-aggressive men. This perspective can help to integrate the current analyses with studies comparing rapists and non-rapists as well as with cross-cultural research.
Potter, S. J., & Laflamme, D. J. (2010). An assessment of state level sexual assault prevalence estimates. Maternal Child Health Journal, (online).
Survey design and sexual violence prevalence rates for 3 surveys used at the state level were compared: the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) extrapolations, and replications of the NVAWS. Findings indicated that the BRFSS prevalence rates were lower than extrapolated NVAWS and the NVAWS replication rates. The NVAWS extrapolation rates were lower than the state NVAWS replication survey rates. The NVAWS used 5 items to capture higher lifetime prevalence of sexual assault, while the BRFSS used two items. One advantage of the BRFSS is that the questions are consistent across states and years, however, the level of question specificity may not accurately capture true prevalence. State leaders and policy makers should use survey data with caution because state-level estimates may not accurately show state needs. State leaders, policy makers, and reporters need to be aware that methodological differences may lead to different prevalence rates.
Data was collected for only 5 states: New Hampshire, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.
Wolitzky-Taylor, K. B., Resnick, H. S., McCauley, J. L., Amstadter, A. B., Kilpatrick, D., G., & Fuggiero, K. J. (2011). Is reporting rape on the rise? A comparison of women with reported versus unreported rape experiences in the National Women’s Study-Replication. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 24, 807-832.
This study examined the prevalence of rape reported to law enforcement in a national sample of 3,001 women ages 18-76 who were interviewed by telephone in 2006. Out of the 526 (18%) women who disclosed having a history of rape, 16% reported their most recent/only rape to law enforcement which is consistent with previous studies from the 1990s. Findings showed that there are several predictors of reporting rape to law enforcement. Women with a college degree were less likely than women in some high school education to report their rape. Reporting rape to law enforcement was more likely if the participant cited peritraumatic fear (fear during trauma), being raped by a stranger, and if the rape occurred after 1980. Several concerns about reporting rape included being blamed, and having family members or others find out about the rape which was also consistent with the National Women’s Study conducted in 1992. Fear of reprisal from the offender was reported as the most common reason (68%) for not reporting the rape to police.
Women who did not have landline phone were excluded from this study.