Rape in the United States

Prevalence and number of incidents

The National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) stated that 300,000 women and 93,000 men were raped annually between November 1995 to May 1996.^[9] Rape prevalence among women in the U.S. (the percentage of women who experienced rape at least once in their lifetime so far) is in the range of 15–20% according to different studies (National Violence against Women survey, 1995, found 17.6% prevalence rate;^[10] a 2007 national study for the Department of Justice on rape found 18% prevalence rate.^[11]). According to a March 2013 report from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 1995 to 2010, the estimated annual rate of female rape or sexual assault declined 58%, from 5.0 victimizations per 1,000 females age 12 or older to 2.1 per 1,000. Assaults on young women aged 12–17 declined from 11.3 per 1,000 in 1994–1998 to 4.1 per 1,000 in 2005–2010; assaults on women aged 18–34 also declined over the same period, from 7.0 per 1,000 to 3.7.^[12][13]

The 2018 Uniform Crime Report (UCR), which measures rapes that are reported to police, estimated that there were 139,380 rapes reported to law enforcement in 2018.^[14] The 2016 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which measures sexual assaults and rapes that may not have been reported to the police, estimated that there were 431,840 incidents of rape or sexual assault in 2015.^[15]

Other government surveys, such as the Sexual Victimization of College Women study, critique the NCVS on the basis it includes only those acts perceived as crimes by the victim, and report a much higher victimization rate.^[16] Estimates from other sources typically report much higher levels of both rape and sexual assault than either the NCVS or UCR. A 2010 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control found that around 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men(an additional 1 in 21 men were 'made to penetrate' someone else) had experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.^[17][18] Differences in survey samples, definitions of rape and sexual assault, and the wording of survey questions likely contribute to these differences, and there is no consensus on the best way to measure rape and sexual assault. Both the NCVS and UCR are believed to significantly under-count the number of rapes and sexual assaults that occur.^[19]

Based on the available data, 21.8% of American rapes of female victims are gang rapes.^[20] RAINN, an American nonprofit anti-sexual assault organization, the largest in the United States, reported: every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted.^[21]

Shift in the form of crime

Over the last four decades, rape has been declining. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the adjusted annual per-capita victimization rate of rape has declined from about 2.4 per 1000 people (age 12 and above) in 1980 (that is, 2.4 persons from each 1000 people 12 and older were raped in 1980) to about 0.4 per 1000 people in 2003, a decline of about 85%. There are several possible explanations for this, including stricter laws and education on security for women.

Demographics of attackers and victims

The Federal Bureau of Investigation have also collected data cases involving victims and perpetrators of sex offenses:

Most rape research and reporting to date has concentrated on male-female forms of rape. Male-male and female-male rape has not been as thoroughly researched, and almost no research has been done on female-female rape.

A 1997 report by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 91% of rape victims are female and 9% are male, and that 99% of arrestees for rape are male.^[38]: 10 However, these statistics are based on reports of "forced penetration". This number excludes instances where men were "made to penetrate" another person, which are assessed separately under "sexual violence". Denov (2004) states that societal responses to the issue of female perpetrators of sexual assault "point to a widespread denial of women as potential sexual aggressors that could work to obscure the true dimensions of the problem."^[39]

A 2014 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of college campus rape statistics from National Crime Victimization Survey data collected from 1995 to 2013, and show that rape in college are independent of race.^[40] The National Violence Against Women Survey found that 34% of American Indian female respondents had experienced attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. The rapist was more likely to be a non-Native than a Native.^[41]

The 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that 13.1% of lesbians, 46.1% of bisexual women, and 17.4% of heterosexual women have been raped, physically assaulted, or stalked.^[42]

Underreporting

A 2014 report by the Department of Justice estimated that 34.8% of cases of sexual assaults are reported to the authorities.^[6]

When sufficient DNA or injury evidence was procured from a woman's body, she was more likely to follow through with the legal process of prosecution as there was more confidence in a favorable outcome for her. Women who experienced forced sexual assault more frequently were less likely to follow through with the legal process than women who do not experience forced sexual assault frequently.^[45]

Prosecution rate

According to FBI statistics, out of 127,258 rapes reported to police departments in 2018, 33.4 percent resulted in an arrest.^[14] Based on correlating multiple data sources, RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) estimates^[46] that for every 1,000 rapes, 384 are reported to police, 57 result in an arrest, 11 are referred for prosecution, 7 result in a felony conviction, and 6 result in incarceration. This compares to a higher rate at every stage for similar crimes.

Number of incidents

The mean annual population was 5,130,004 for students and 8,614,853 for non-students.^[62]

Jurisdiction

In the United States, the principle of dual sovereignty applies to rape, as to other crimes. If the rape is committed within the borders of a state, that state has jurisdiction. If the victim is a federal official, an ambassador, consul, or other foreign official under the protection of the United States, or if the crime took place on federal property or involved crossing state borders, or in a manner that substantially affects interstate commerce or national security, then the federal government also has jurisdiction.

If a crime is not committed within any state, such as in the District of Columbia or on a naval or U.S.-flagged merchant vessel in international waters, then federal jurisdiction is exclusive. In cases where the rape involves both state and federal jurisdictions, the offender can be tried and punished separately for each crime without raising issues of double jeopardy. When a state has jurisdiction over a rape case, as a matter of policy, federal prosecution will not be pursued for a rape charge unless the case presents a matter of federal interest, that interest was not adequately addressed by a state-level prosecution, and the government believes that a federal prosecution will be successful.^[68]

Jurisdiction issues also complicate the handling of campus rape, due in part to overlapping jurisdiction of campus and local law enforcement, and differences in how various police agencies and prosecutors handle sex offenses.^[69]

Federal law

Federal law does not use the term "rape". Rape is grouped with all forms of non-consensual sexual acts under chapter 109a of the United States Code (18 U.S.C. §§ 2241–2248).

Under federal law, the punishment for rape can range from a fine to life imprisonment. The severity of the punishment is based on the use of violence, the age of the victim, and whether drugs or intoxicants were used to override consent. If the perpetrator is a repeat offender the law prescribes automatically doubling the maximum sentence.

Whether the victim is an adult^[70] or of a child,^[71] the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the death penalty is not available as a possible penalty if the victim does not die and death was not intended by the defendant. Capital punishment remains available as a penalty where the victim dies, or where the defendant acts with intent to kill the victim but the victim survives.

Early American history

Rape and its prosecution have been present in America as early as its initial conception. Such is the case of Henry Bedlow and the raping of Lanah Sawyer in 1793 in the New York court.^[79] The evening started of Sawyer with socialization amongst friends, walks in the city, and evening going out for ice cream, but ended with Bedlow taking her to a brothel, and according to Sawyer, raping her. Bedlow was not prosecuted for the alleged rape, and Lanah's social indulgence with the man led the court to believe she had consented. Rape in this era was picture to take place in a dark alley, a random stranger attacking a woman.^[80] But in reality, the accused rape was often between women and men who knew each other. Private affairs, those between people who knew each other, did not require the same community intervention and surveillance that was demanded by more public attacks.^[80] Rapes that were reported and taken to trial did not result in a prosecution due to the fact it was different to the social understanding of what a rape could be, and consent by the woman purely based on social interaction was always assumed.^[81] Along with the misconception of strangers attacking women under cover of shadow and wielding a knife, black men, enslaved and free were often accused. Due to the social differences between white communities and black communities, black men were seen as more likely to commit the act of rape. This thought of violence was also perpetuated by the fact black men were outcasts in white societies and did not have the social means to coerce white women. Coercion was seen in white communities' as it is today, among people who are within each other's social circles.^[82]

During the era of slavery, enslaved women were frequently sexually abused and raped by slave owners, the sons of slave owners, and overseers.^[83] The sexual abuse of the enslaved that occurred prior to the Civil War was so prevalent that it strongly influenced the genetic make-up of the overwhelming majority of African Americans alive today.^{[84][85][86][87][88]} White men who raped black women were protected by impunity under Southern society, and children of such unions usually inherited the status of their mothers as enslaved peoples. Sexual assaults affected girls as young as 12 years old; a young enslaved girl named Celia was the frequent target of her master, Robert Newsom's abuse. After having three children with him in a relationship that began when she was only 14, Celia killed her master in self-defense after another attempt at sexual assault. She was found guilty in court and sentenced to death by hanging.^[89] Enslaved women were also subject to sexual abuse by slave traders and were routinely assaulted on slave ships; the perpetrators faced no legal punishment. The rape of enslaved women was also done by masters to result in a substantial growth of their enslaved people as property and increase profit. Slave owners would attempt to justify the abuse of black women during slavery through the stereotype of the Jezebel, a seductive woman who wanted to submit to them.^[90] According to authors Judith Worell and Pamela Remer, because "African American women were sexually exploited during slavery" and because of stereotypes originating from slavery such as the Jezebel, black women "are not viewed as credible complainants, and are stereotyped (e.g., as promiscuous) in ways that blame them for their rapes."^[91]

Before and during the American Civil War when slavery was widespread, laws against rape were focused primarily on instances of black men raping white women, real or imagined, as opposed to other instances. Black women who were raped by any man were not protected by the law.^[92] In some states during the 1950s, a white woman having consensual sex with and a black man was considered rape.^[93] and is related to lynchings, racial violence, rapes targeting African-Americans (Such as the Tulsa race massacre) that occurred under the suspicion of rape or consensual sex between a black man and white woman.

Contemporary history

Rape, in many US states, before the 1970s, could incur capital punishment. The 1977 Supreme Court case of Coker v. Georgia held that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbade the death penalty for the crime of rape of an adult woman. The court held that "Life is over for the victim of the murderer; for the rape victim, life may not be nearly so happy as it was, but it is not over, and normally is not beyond repair".^[94] Peggy Reeves Sanday, a professor at University of Pennsylvania, described the US as probably being "in all likelihood one of the most rape-prone societies in the world."^[9]: 9

Feminism politicized and publicized rape as an institution in the late 20th century.

New York Radical Feminists held a Rape Speak Out, where women discussed rape as an expression of male violence against women, and organized women to establish rape crisis centers and work towards reforming existing rape laws. This was the first attempt to focus political attention on the issue of rape.^[95]

Feminist writings on rape include Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, by Susan Brownmiller. Concepts such as date rape and marital rape were brought to public attention.

The murder of Megan Kanka, which occurred in 1994 in New Jersey, when the seven-year-old girl was raped and murdered by her neighbor, has led to the introduction of Megan's Law, which are laws which require law enforcement to disclose details relating to the location of registered sex offenders.

Several developments in regard to rape legislation have occurred in the 21st century. Following the intensely publicized case of the 2005 murder of Jessica Lunsford, a nine-year-old girl from Florida who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a man with prior convictions for sexual attacks, states have started enacting laws referred to as Jessica's Law, which typically mandate life imprisonment with a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison, and lifetime electronic monitoring, for adults convicted of raping children under 12 years. Furthermore, US sex offender registries contain other sanctions, such as housing and presence restrictions.