NCJ Number
94022
Date Published
Unknown
Length
0 pages
Annotation
Practicing mental exercises to react calmly to potential rape situations, following commonsense personal safety guidelines, and being self-confident and assertive can help women to avoid being raped.
Abstract
Statistics show that 1 woman in 8 will be raped. The typical victim is 16-24 years old; single, separated, or divorced; and working or attending school. The next most vulnerable age group are women aged 25-35 years old. Being with someone else, rather than being alone, reduces the chances of being raped by 70 percent. Many rapes occur in a dating situation, and most rapists know their victims. Thus, women need to plan how they will extricate themselves from a potentially threatening incident before it escalates to rape. The greatest chance of being raped is in July and August on a Friday or Saturday night between 8 pm and midnight. Because rape is a violent crime, the top priority in a rape situation is to survive. Rapes occur far more often in violent, aggressive societies -- as in the United States -than in more peaceful cultures.