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- <text id=92TT0985>
- <title>
- May 04, 1992: Report on An Epidemic of Rape
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- May 04, 1992 Why Roe v. Wade Is Already Moot
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 15
- NATION
- Unsettling Report on An Epidemic of Rape
- </hdr><body>
- <p>The latest survey reveals that the majority of victims are minors
- </p>
- <p> The statistics are horrifying enough to make a mother rush
- her daughters into hiding -- and perhaps join them. According to
- a federally funded survey published by the National Victim Center
- last week, 683,000 adult women were forcibly raped in the U.S.
- in 1990. That figure is five times the number of sexual
- assaults reported by the Justice Department for the same year.
- </p>
- <p> Tabulating the answers from a cross section of 4,000
- women, the survey authors estimated that more than 12 million
- American women have been raped at least once in their life, but
- the true shocker is that 61% of rape victims were younger than
- 18 at the time of their attack. Three out of 10 had not yet
- reached their 11th birthday. In almost 80% of cases the victim
- knew her rapist.
- </p>
- <p> As testimony to the continued stigma of rape, only 16% of
- the assaults are reported. Half the victims surveyed said they
- would be "much more likely" to go to the police if assured their
- name would not be used. As a result, the survey's authors
- recommended that more states adopt laws to keep the names of
- rape victims confidential.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-