Sexual Assault Statistics

All of these statistics and their sources can be found in The Empowerment Project-pages 135-143. The Empowerment Project can be downloaded here.

Statistics which have been updated are shown alongside their references on this page, and the revisions will soon appear in The Empowerment Project document.

How Often Does Sexual Assault Occur?
* 1, 397 sexual assaults occur in Canada every day.
*Once every minute a woman or child in Canada is sexually assaulted (forced sexual touching)
*A woman is raped (forced to have sexual intercourse) every 17 minutes in Canada


Who Are The Victims Of Sexual Assault?
* 82% of sexual assault victims are women or girls
* 15% of sexual assault victims are boys under 17
* 3% of sexual assault victims are men over 17
* 56% of female victims are under 18 years of age
* 25% of female victims are under 12 years of age
* 44% of female victims are over 18 year of age
* 77% of stalking victims are women


What Percentage of Canadian Women Are Victims Of Sexual Violence?
*39% of Canadian women (or 2 out of 5) have been sexually assaulted since the age of sixteen
*24% of Canadian girls under age 16 have experienced rape or coercive sex.
* 51% of Canadian Women have been victims of physical or sexual violence since the age of sixteen.
* 24% of Canadian women have been forced into sexual activity by threat, by being held down, or by being hurt in some way.
* 30% of women currently or previously married have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence at the hands of a marital partner.


Who Are The Attackers?
*98% of sexual attackers are men.
*80% of sexual offenders are over 18 years of age.
*44% of sexual offenders are over 35 years of age.
*50% of sexual offenders - at the time of the assault - are married or living common-law, have children, and are considered responsible members of the community.


78% of sexual attackers were men the victim knew prior to the attack.
* 35% was a close friend or acquaintance
* 32% was a past or current partner
* 11% was a family member
* 22% of sexual attackers were strangers


Who Is More Likely To Experience Sexual Assault?
Females
*82% of sexual assault victims are women or girls
Young Girls and Young Women
*Girls are 2 to 3 times more likely (than boys) to experience childhood sexual abuse.
*Women aged 18 to 24 are over three times more likely to experience sexual assault.
*The majority of date and acquaintance rape victims are young women aged 16 to 24.
Runaway children
*86% of runaway girls and 50% of runaway boys have experienced sexual abuse.
Previously assaulted women and girls
*Victims of incest or child abuse are much more likely to be revictimized.
*60% of sexual assault victims had experienced more than one sexual assault.

Double Jeopardy
This refers to people who are more at risk than the general population because they are victims of others forms of oppression. The following groups of women are in double jeopardy:

Women and girls with disabilities
*Girls with disabilities are four times more likely (than the national average) to be sexually abused.
*53% of women disabled from birth have been raped, abused, or assaulted.
*83% of women with disabilities will be physically or sexually assaulted.
First Nations / Aboriginals
*The incidence of child sexual abuse in some Aboriginal communities is as high as 75 to 80% for girls under 8 years of age.
*57% of Aboriginal women have been sexually abused.
New Canadians
*Fear of being deported and fear of the police often keep immigrant and refugee women from reporting domestic abuse.


What Circumstances Surround Sexual Assault?
*64% of sexual offences occurred in the home (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. Juristat, 23 [6], 1 - 26. 2003).
*22% of sexual assaults involved a weapon.
*61% of attackers use threat of physical force during a sexual assault.
*In more than 40% of incidents of violence against women the attacker was drinking.
*A firearm was involved in less than 1% of sexual assault cases
*18% of sexual assault cases involved another type of weapon.
*54% of young women and 13% of young men have experienced sexual coercion in a dating relationship (Price, E. et al. Dating Violence amongst New Brunswick Adolescents: A Summary of Two Studies. Research Paper Series No.2. Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research: Fredericton, New Brunswick, January 2000)
*20% of post-secondary students said they gave into unwanted sexual intercourse because they were overwhelmed by a man’s continual arguments and pressure.
*31% of males and 22% of females said "yes" when asked the question: "If a girl engages in necking or petting and she lets things get out of hand, is it the girl’s fault if her partner forces sex on her?"



What Are The Consequences For Victims?
*11% of women are physically injured due to sexual assault. Only 19% of these women injured received medical attention.
*90% of incidents of violence against women have an emotional impact on the victim. The most common reported feelings are anger, fear, and becoming more cautious and less trusting.
*Women who have been sexually assaulted are significantly more likely than other women to commit suicide.
*61% of girls with eating disorders report sexual abuse.
*Survivors of sexual violence have a higher rate of drug use. Of women who have been sexually assaulted as adults, 20% use sleeping pills and 20% use sedatives.
*8% of sexually assaulted women become pregnant.

What Are The Consequences For Offenders?
*8% of sexual assaults are reported to the police (Statistics Canada, 2004).
*Of those reported, 34% of the accused are arrested or charged.
*39% of convicted sexual offenders receive probation as their harshest sentence.
*If a convicted offender receives a prison sentence, the durations are as follows:

10% 1 month or less
33% 1 to 6 months
18% 6 to 12 months
17% 1 to 2 years
19% more than 2 years

In an Adult Criminal Court survey done in 2004, 4 in 10 of the sexual assault and sexual offence cases resulted in a conviction, and 6 in 10 of those convicted were incarcerated (Statistics Canada, Measuring Violence Against Women Statistical Trends, 2006. Catalogue no.85-570-XIE. 52-53)

What Happens After A Sexual Assault?
* 8% of sexual assaults are reported to the police (Statistics Canada, 2004).
* It is estimated that only 1% of date and acquaintance rapes are reported to the police.
In one study women gave the following reasons for not reporting a sexual assault:
* 64% said they felt shame and fear.
* 50% said they believed that the police could do nothing about it.
* 44% said they were concerned about the attitudes of both the police and the courts.
* 33% said they were afraid they would be assaulted again by the offender.

What Happens When A Woman Resists?
Women who used one method of self-defense had a 60-65% chance of escape
Women who used two methods of self-defense had an 80% chance of escape
Women who used no method of self-defense had a 20% chance of escape6
70% of women who fought back against a stranger sexual assault prevented it.
When attacked, women who ran, yelled, or used physical force avoided the rape.

Rapists did not become more violent or abusive if the victim fought back.
Women who fought an attack were injured no more than women who didn’t fight.

The strongest determinant of victim injury is the severity of the offender’s attack.

It is important to note that a woman’s intuition may be her best tool for defense. Each situation is different. A woman’s response will depend on her assessment of the situation. Safety must come first. And regardless of her choice, sexual assault is never the victim’s fault.

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