Each month, there is an awareness that aims to increase awareness and educate the public. In April, a month shared with other awareness’s’ such as National Foster Care Month, National Child Abuse and Prevention Month, Autism Awareness, and others, Sexual Assault Awareness was officially recognized and declared by President Barack Obama in 2009.
Its history in the United States dates back over fifty years to the 1970s when activists started protesting and publicly discussing sexual assault and violence against women - openly advocating for those that have been sexually assaulted. Soon after these taboo topics were discussed on a national level, a movement that started across the pond in England and Belgium, made its way to the United States in 1976 called Take Back the Night. This movement quickly developed into a non-profit that is dedicated to end sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual abuse and all other forms of sexual violence. Finally, in 1994 Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act. The first legislation to require law enforcement to treat domestic violence as a crime, not a private matter.
Even though enormous steps have been made towards ending sexual assault, there is still a long, long way to go. Below are just a few staggering statistics
About half (51.1%) of female victims of rape reported being raped by an intimate partner, and 40.8% by an acquaintance (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey - (https://www.nsvrc.org/publications/NISVS-2010-summary-report)
Over half (52.4%) of male victims report being raped by an acquaintance, and 15.1% by a stranger (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey - https://www.nsvrc.org/publications/NISVS-2010-summary-report)
About one in four male victims of completed or attempted rape first experienced it between the ages of 11 and 17 (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey - https://www.nsvrc.org/resource/2500/national-intimate-partner-and-sexual-violence-survey-2015-data-brief-updated-release)
Take 5 minutes today and read an article about a resource topic that interests you (these are fantastic articles with a plethora of topics to choose from: https://www.nsvrc.org/resource-topics). Among the listed resources are how sexual assault impacts our communities, children, workplace, military, and beyond. Educate yourself and share with a friend or loved one what you have learned so we can continuously raise awareness about the causes and risk factors for sexual assault. And, so we can empower individuals to step up in their communities to prevent such violent acts.
If you or someone you know have been sexually assaulted, you do not need to feel alone in figuring out what to do next. You can call the free and confidential National Sexual Assault Hotline 24/7 at 1-800-656-4673.