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Facts
- The legal definition of rape in Massachusetts is:
Rape is when the offender has 'sexual intercourse or
unnatural sexual intercourse with a person and compels
such person to submit by force and against his/her will
or compels such person to submit by threat of bodily
injury'. This definition includes oral and anal intercourse
(including fellatio, cunnilingus, and other intrusions of a
part of a person's body or other object into the genital or
anal opening of another person's body). (MGL Chapter 265, §22)
- Sexual assault includes a wide range of victimizations,
distinct from rape or attempted rape. These crimes include
completed or attempted attacks generally involving unwanted
sexual contact between the survivor and offender.
(RAINN)
- 88% of sexual assault survivors knew the perpetrator.
(MA Department of
Public Health, Sexual Assault in MA 1988-1997: Findings from the
Publicly-Funded Rape Crisis Centers and the Behavioral Risk Factor
Surveillance System, November 1999)
- In 2002-2003, there were an average of 223,280 survivors of
rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. (RAINN)
- Only about 40% of rapes/sexual assaults were reported to
law enforcement in 2003. (RAINN)
- The number of reports of assaults on women by an intimate partner
(current/former spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, or date) rose from 11%
of reports to 20% between 1988 and 1997. (MA Department of Public Health, Sexual Assault
in MA 1988-1997: Findings from the Publicly-Funded Rape Crisis Centers
and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, November 1999)
- Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone
is sexually assaulted. (RAINN)
To see more facts and statistics, please see the
Rape,
Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN) website.
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