flyers & campaigning

I'll explain Take Back the Night next week, perhaps after I've been through it. For now, I'm doing research on sexual assault for PAGE (People Acting for Gender Equality) and our flyering/campaigning that'll be going on this week in preparation for next week and all of its SA Awareness glory. >_>

I think after the craziness of my freshman year has died down a little bit, I'm going to "zero in" on my niche in feminism, that is, dealing with the concept of gender roles (specifically masculinity) and how they enforce negative behaviors and create a safe haven for gendered/sexualized violence. John Lennon's song "Imagine" is stuck in my head from the candlelight vigil last night and...

well there are simply no words to describe it. So, my research:

found on rainn.org

1 in 6 American women have been a victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime

9 out of 10 victims are female (conversely, 1 out of 10 victims are male - this is important to remember)

1 in 33 American men have been a victim of an attempted or completed rape in his lifetime

by age:
15% of victims are under 12
29% are between the ages of 12-17
44% are under the age of 18
80% are under the age of 30

Girls 14-19 are 4x more likely to be victimized than the general population

93% of juvenile assault victims know their attacker

victims are:
3x more likely to suffer from depression
6x more likely to suffer from PTSD
13x more likely to abuse alcohol
26x more likely to abuse drugs
4x more likely to contemplate suicide

EVERY TWO MINUTES someone in the US is sexually assaulted, however, rape has DECREASED by 60% since 1993

60% of SAs go unreported, with men being the least likely group to report

only about 6% of rapists ever spend a day in jail

proof:
if a rape is reported (remember, only about 40%), there is a 50.8% chance of an arrest
if an arrest is made, there is an 80% chance of prosecution
if there is a prosecution, there is a 58% chance of conviction
if there is a felony conviction, there is a 69% chance the convict will ever spend time in jail
so even in the 39% of attacks that are reported to the police, there is only a 16.3% chance the rapist will end up in prison
15 out of 16 walk FREE

only 11% of attackers use a weapon - 3% use a gun, 6% use a knife
84% of victims report the use of physical force only

2/3 of all rapes are committed by someone the victim knows

and... here it is folks. arguably the most harmful myth about SA debunked:
studies show between 2-3% of rapes are false allegations, the same rate as any other crime