Sexual Assault & Violence
LYW Womxn’s Bodies | Sexual Assault & Violence. Today is the first and only hearing without a rigorous investigation of the sexual allegations against the President’s nominee for the Supreme Court, with only two witnesses—Dr. Blasey Ford and Judge Kavanaugh.
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Here are some facts about sexual assault/sexual violence.
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Sexual assault is any type of unwanted sexual contact such as rape, groping, fondling, incest, sexual harassment (unwanted words and actions of a sexual nature), sexual exploitation and trafficking & intimate partner sexual assault. (def. National Sexual Violence Resource Center).
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Survivors of sexual assault often have vivid recollections of the violence.
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Approximately 1 in 5 women in the United States have experienced rape or attempted rape in their lifetime.
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Among multiracial women about a 30% have a lifetime estimate of rape or attempted rape, 27% among American Indian/Alaska Native women, 21% among Black women, 20% among non-Hispanic white women, 13% among Hispanic women have lifetime estimates of rape and attempted rape (CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention).
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Research also suggests most sexual violence is underreported.
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Over 40% and 13% of bisexual and lesbian women have experienced rape at some point in their lives, and over 70% and 40% have experienced other forms of sexual violence in their lifetime.
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More than 50% of transgender people were sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime.
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Over 40% of women have experienced various forms of sexual violence like sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact, and non-contact unwanted sexual experiences (like photographing or videotaping a woman/girl for sexual purposes without consent, exposing genitalia without consent, masturbating in public, etc.).
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40% of women first experienced sexual assault before age 18, 70% by age 25.
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A majority of women and girls don’t report the incident because of fear of being blamed or shamed, or believed; getting in trouble, causing harm or hardship to the perpetrator, a lack of language or understanding of sexual assault, or the painful affects of sexual violence.
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