I keep seeing this image floating around Facebook, and I want to let everyone sharing it know that they are victim-blaming every time they do so. You are smacking a rape victim in the face. You are telling that 12-year-old girl down the street who was raped by her father, grandfather, uncle, brother, neighbor, or stranger in the park that the rape was her fault and she should have done something to prevent getting pregnant from that rape even though she’s never had a period, and probably didn’t know much about periods or sex until that moment. You are pretty much saying we should start every girl on some sort of birth control at the age of ten or eleven so when she’s raped, she won’t have to have an abortion.
Here are some stats for you:
According to Rainn.org:
-One in 9 girls and 1 in 20 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault.
-82% of all victims under 18 are female.
-Females ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.
-93% of rapists are known to the victim.
According to victimsofcrime.org
-The prevalence of child sexual abuse is difficult to determine because it is often not reported; experts agree that the incidence is far greater than what is reported to authorities.
-1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse;
-Self-report studies show that 20% of adult females and 5-10% of adult males recall a childhood sexual assault or sexual abuse incident;
-During a one-year period in the U.S., 16% of youth ages 14 to 17 had been sexually victimized;
According to indianaprevention.org: Child abuse statistics
Before the age of 18…
-1 out of every 4 girls is sexually abused
-1 out of every 6 boys is sexually abused
-1 in 5 children are solicited sexually while on the internet.
-Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children ages 17 and under.
-The median age for reported child abuse is 9 years old.
-85% of child abuse victims never report their abuse.
-Nearly 50% of all victims of forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling are children under 12.
-More than 90% of abusers are people children know, love and trust.
According to guttmacher.org:
-Adolescents made up 10% of people obtaining an abortion; 2% of people obtaining an abortion were 17 or younger.
https://rainn.org/statistics/children-and-teens
https://victimsofcrime.org/child-sexual-abuse-statistics/