EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? BJS/NIJ
January 26, 2001 at 4:30 p.m.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 202/307-0703
NEARLY 3
PERCENT OF COLLEGE WOMEN EXPERIENCED
A
COMPLETED OR ATTEMPTED RAPE DURING THE COLLEGE YEAR,
ACCORDING
TO A NEW JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REPORT
WASHINGTON,
D.C . ? About 3 percent of college women experience a completed and/or
attempted rape during a typical college year, according to a new report
released today by the Justice Department?s National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
and Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
The report, The Sexual Victimization of College Women, offers a
comprehensive look into the prevalence and nature of sexual assault occurring
at American colleges.
The data
show that about 1.7 percent of female college students were victims of a
completed rape, and about 1.1 percent were victims of attempted rape.? About 1.7 percent of the college women
reported being coerced to have sex.
The study
also estimated that about 13 percent of college women had been stalked since
the beginning of the school year.
Of the
incidents of sexual victimization, the vast majority occurred after 6 p.m. in
living quarters.? For completed rapes,
nearly 60 percent that took place on campus occurred in the victim?s residence,
31 percent occurred in other living quarters on campus and 10 percent occurred
at a fraternity.? Most off‑campus
victimizations, especially rapes, also occurred in residences.? However, particularly for sexual contacts
and threatened victimizations, incidents also took place in bars, dance clubs,
nightclubs and work settings.?
Most of
the sexually assaulted women knew the person who victimized them.? For completed and attempted rapes, nearly 90
percent of the victims knew the offender, who was usually a classmate, friend,
ex‑boyfriend or acquaintance.
Most
victims of completed or attempted rape reported that they did not receive
additional injuries during the victimization.
About one in five rape and attempted rape incidents resulted in
additional injury, most often "bruises, black eyes, cuts, swelling or
chipped teeth."
The study
found that for about half of the incidents categorized as completed rapes, the
women did not consider the incident to be a rape.? The study asked a number of questions to determine what happened
during incidents reported by survey respondents and whether force or coercion
was used.? Completed rape was defined as
"unwanted completed penetration by force or threat of force."
The study
also included a comparison component sponsored by BJS that used methodology
similar to that of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).? The
two components used different questioning methodologies to screen for
incidents of rape.? In addition, the
NCVS based component, presented as a crime survey, focused on incidents victims
perceived to be crimes; a more limited set of events than covered by the main
component of the study.? The main
component, called the? National College
Women Sexual Victimization (NCWSV) study, was presented as a survey of
?unwanted sexual experiences,? and obtained information on incidents that
victims may not have thought to be criminal.
The estimates of completed and attempted rape from the main component,
asking about unwanted sexual ?experiences were 11 and 6 times greater than those of the
companion study, which focused on criminal victimizations.
The
differences between the two components of the study highlight how different
?methodologies can influence estimates of rape.? The two studies were conducted at the same
time and employed similar samples and interviewing methodologies.? The key differences were in the context
under which the surveys were conducted, the wording of the questions used to
screen for victimizations, and the wording used to determine the type of
incident.
Both
components were conducted between February and May 1997, and were asked of
women who were enrolled in college at the start of the 1996 fall semester.? Both component results were based on
telephone surveys of a randomly selected national samples of women who attended
2‑ or 4‑ year college or university during fall 1996.? The sample sizes were 4,445 for the main
component and 4,432 for the companion component.?
Single
copies of Sexual Victimization of College Women (NCJ 182369), written by
Bonnie S. Fisher, Francis T. Cullen and Michael G. Turner, may be obtained by
calling NCJRS at 1‑800/851‑3420.
The report may be downloaded from the National Institute of Justice
Website at:? http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij.? Click on the ?Highlights? section on the NIJ
homepage to obtain full copies of the report.
Additional
criminal justice materials can be obtained from the Office of Justice Programs
homepage at:? http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov
###
After hours contact: David Hess at 1‑888/763‑8943
(pager)
BJS/NIJ01017