No Frills About It

The following information was taken from RAINN, which the nation's largest anti-sexual violence not for profit organization.

Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.

How'd we come up with that number? Here's the math. There are 525,600 minutes in a (non-leap) year (60x24x365). That makes 31,536,000 seconds per year.

According to the US Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey, the country’s largest and most reliable crime study, there were an average of 204,370 sexual assaults each year in 2003-2004 (the most recent data available).

So, 31,536,000 divided by 204,370 comes out to one sexual assault every 154 seconds—or, in round numbers, one every two and a half minutes.

One more thing we should point out: Notice that we said one "sexual assault," not one "rape." What's the difference? Sexual assault is a broader category that the Justice Department uses to classify rape, attempted rape, and other violent felonies that fall short of rape (which it defines as "forced vaginal, anal or oral penetration").

Of the estimated 204,370 annual violent sex crimes, 65,510 were completed rapes. So, if you want a figure that covers only rape and excludes attempted rape and sexual assault, divide 31,536,000 by 65,510. That comes out to one rape every 481 seconds or so, or about one rape every 8 minutes.