“Dazed” Magazine

How Common is Intimate Partner Violence?

James Deen and Stoya (The Guardian UK)

James Deen and Stoya (The Guardian UK)

Late last year, adult film star James Deen was accused of rape by his former girlfriend, fellow adult film star Stoya. Other performers later came forward to accuse Deen of sexual assault, but Stoya’s two tweets on Nov. 28, 2015, started Deen’s downfall: He’s since been dropped from one major studio.

Rape can be part of a larger pattern of intimate partner violence. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), intimate partner violence “comprises 15% of all violence crimes,” and women ages 18-24 are most likely to be “abused by an intimate partner.” In addition, 46%+ of women raped are raped by an acquaintance. Of this number, 45%+ of women are raped by an intimate partner. These are scary stats.

As of 2014, women ages 18-24 comprise 4.8% of the total population.As of the 2010 Census, women comprised 50.8% of the total population, or 156.9M+ residents. We can estimate that the current number of women in this age group who’ve been raped by an acquaintance might shake out to 155K+.

Here’s the math:

  • 156,964,212 *.0048 = 753,429 (estimate of women ages 18-24 as of 2014)
  • 753,429 * .46 = 346,578 (estimate of number of women in that age range raped by an acquaintance)
  • 346,578 * .45 = 155,961 (estimate of number of women ages 18-24 raped by an intimate partner)

Obviously, this isn’t an exact estimate, due to a couple of reasons: self-reporting (not all women will probably report rape/violence), and inaccurate data (using both 2010 and 2014 numbers).

Scary, right? Unfortunately, this is the reality, so take care of yourselves.

 

Shia LaBoeuf “Dazed” Interview: Male Rape Stats

Shia LaBeouf (MoviePilot)

Shia LaBeouf (MoviePilot)

Actor Shia LaBoeuf recently gave an interview to “Dazed” magazine writer Aimee Cliff. Within the interview transcript, he alleges that he was raped by a female visitor during his performance art run earlier this year at Los Angeles’ Cohen Gallery.

Men getting raped isn’t discussed nearly as much as men instigating rape, so I was curious to see if there were any stats available on the subject.

According to the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) website, men comprise around 10% of sexual assault victims. (In this case, sexual assault refers to anything from “unwanted sexual touching to forced penetration”). Other stats on the site say that about 1 in every 33 American men (about 3% of total men) will go through “an experienced or attempted rape in their lifetime.” The page also notes that one out of every 10 rape victims were men in 2003.

But there are more recent stats to dig into. In 2013, the National Crime Victimization Survey found that 38% of sexual violence in households was directed towards men. (To put this in perspective, sexual violence and rape against men had accounted for 5-14% in past years.) Researcher Lara Stemple had wondered if the stats had previously been underreported, and it certainly seems they had.

Maybe LaBoeuf’s coming out as a victim will embolden other victims to come out and be counted. Culturally, it makes sense that these numbers have been traditionally underreported, as men wouldn’t want to look like they’re “less than” a full man. But hopefully this will make some progress.