By the numbers: Sex crimes on campus

In a given calendar year, nearly one in 20 U.S. college women will be the victim of a completed or attempted rape, according to “The Sexual Victimization of College Women,” a 2000 Justice Department report. During the course of a typical five-year college career, that means as many as 20 to 25 percent can become rape victims.

About one in three gay men, one in five bisexual men and one in 10 heterosexual men reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact during their lifetime, according to the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"There is also far less research done surrounding sexual violence within male and LGBTQ-identified communities," this toolkit from the Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls & Young Women explains. "Lack of research paired with cultural stigmas create a culture that does not support survivors to report their assault and in turn, does not provide adequate resources to them."

Students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer, or who are women of color, immigrants, international students or have a disability may also face a higher risk of sexual abuse -- but just how much more risk is tough to say.

Nearly 10 percent of women at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) reported in the fall 2008 Historically Black College and University Campus Sexual Assault Study of 3,951 undergraduates being the victim of a completed sexual assault since entering college.

“Incapacitated sexual assault (6.2%) was slightly more prevalent than physically forced sexual assault (4.8%),” the survey results noted. “[I]t seems that the rates of sexual assault are slightly lower among HBCU women than among their non-HBCU counterparts: a previous study using the same methodology found that 13.7% of non-HBCU undergraduate women experience a completed sexual assault after entering college.” Why the difference? It “seems to be driven entirely by a difference in the rate of incapacitated sexual assault, which is likely explained by the fact that HBCU women drink alcohol much less frequently than non-HBCU women.”

Beyond the scope of the HBCU college women survey, a 2009 Justice Department report notes that black females ages 12 and older were raped or sexually assaulted at a rate of 2.9 per 1,000 in 2008, compared to 1.2 for females who are white and 0.9 for females of another race. The rates were similar for Hispanic (1.1) and non-Hispanic women (1.5).

The 2005 report “Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges and Universities Are Doing About It” sums up the scope of the acquaintance rape problem:

“Counter to widespread stranger ­rape myths, in the vast majority of these crimes—between 80 and 90 percent—victim and assailant know each other. In fact, the more intimate the relation­ship, the more likely it is for rape to be completed rather than attempted. Half of all student victims do not label the incident ‘rape.’ This is particularly true when no weapon was used, no sign of physical injury is evident, and alcohol was involved—factors commonly associated with campus acquaintance rape. Given the extent of non-stranger rape on campus, it is no surprise that the majority of victimized women do not define their experience as a rape.

“These reasons help explain why campus sexual assault is not well reported.”