Facts & Statistics
Women’s Foundation of Minnesota
By mid-life, 1 in 3 Minnesota women have experienced a rape crime.
By age 23, 1 in 4 Minnesota female college students reports being sexually assaulted.
National Statistics:
1 in 5 girls will be victims of sexual abuse before the age 18, and that number will increase to 1 in 3 by the time they reach mid-life.
1 in 4 girls report dating violence and that number will increase to 1 in 3 females experiencing violence in their relationships by mid-life.
Other disturbing facts:
2/3 of college men report that they would consider raping a woman if they think they could get away with it.
Only 2% of all rapists are convicted and imprisoned.
Examples:
Sexual assault and abuse is any unwanted, non-consensual, manipulated or coerced form of sexual activity. They include a wide range of behaviors, such as:
Having your pants pulled down by someone against your wishes, or having them grab your crotch
Having sex with someone who is too drunk to make clear decisions
A teacher or coach having sexual contact with a student
Forcing someone to do sexual things or look at sexual material that makes them feel uncomfortable
Prevention
How Can We Stop These Problems?
Primary prevention means taking action before the onset of symptoms. Prevention is a systematic process that promotes healthy behaviors and environments and reduces the likelihood or frequency of an incident, condition, or illness occurring.
The Minnesota Men’s Action Network was formed to get men involved in the prevention of sexual violence.
Men can help other men take action before the problem starts.
The Prevention Institute has developed some exciting new ways of thinking about prevention. Above is a graphic way of envisioning prevention that the Institute developed.
For a detailed description of the spectrum go here.
Like the light spectrum, all of the bands are important to the whole and support each other. There is, however, greater power in some of the bands than others. The institute found that “changing organizational practices” and “influencing policy and legislation” had the greatest impact on changing environmental contributors.
In the 1970’s, almost no one used child safety seats – kids climbing around in the car was the norm. Persistent educational campaigns did not get people to use child safety seats. Only after hospitals set up organizational practices in which new parents needed a car seat to leave the hospital with the baby and states began passing laws that mandated child safety seats did most parent begin to use them. Today it is the norm that children sit in safety seats in the car.