Some factors for analysis in sexual assault

Abstract

Sexual assaults, particularly rape, are generating increased public attention in terms of services for the victims, but as yet, little attention has been paid to causal factors and preventive measures. Data from 216 sexual assaults by a single assailant reported in Newark, New Jersey, from July 1975 to June, 1976, indicated that 80% of the victims and 67% of the assailants were under 30 years of age. The month of highest frequency was July, the day of greatest incidence, Saturday, and the period between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. included 55% of the attacks. The study also showed that 88% of the assaults were intra-ethnic. that 53% of the attacks occurred in the living quarters of one or other of the parties and that 59% of the victims were not strangers to their assailant.