Sexual Violence Fundamentals: Sexual Violence and Reporting: By the Numbers

The numbers around sexual violence are inherently incomplete. One reason for this is that most official statistics are based on the number of police reports made during a given time period. However, we know that many forms of sexual violence do not meet the definition of a crime and would therefore not be reported to law enforcement.

Furthermore, studies have shown that the majority of victims/survivors of criminal sexual violence choose not to report to law enforcement.