Every 12 seconds a women is beaten by a man in the United States, and every 6 hours a life is lost to it, according to FBI statistics in Violence Against Women a book by Lisa Wolff, published in 1999. Sexual assault is a huge issue, yet 98% of rapists will never spend a day of their lives serving time. The article “Reporting Rates” from the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network updated in 2009, says 68% of the crimes aren’t even reported. Maybe due to fear, maybe due to relationships, or maybe it’s due to our society's lack of support and awareness, focusing on this problem would allow survivors to not be afraid of the consequences of speaking out. First we need to start with knowing the types of sexual assault, the effect it has on the survivors and abusers, then finally we’ll bring attention to the programs for survivors.

Sexual assault is not just rape, there are many different types. It is any type of forced or coerced sexual contact or behavior that happens without consent. The “Sexual Assault” article from a Women’s health website, written by Kathleen C. Basile, a behavior scientist with a Ph.D, updated September 18, 2015,  lists the types of sexual assault, which include rape, attempted rape, child molestation, and sexual harassment. Rape is the first thing that comes to mind when we think about sexual assault. Not only do both participants have to give consent, for it to not be considered rape, but both also have to be of age to give consent.

Fighting back could be one person’s reaction to it, but not fighting back doesn’t give you any less reason to consider it rape. Child molestation is where any adult forces a child, or someone under 18, to perform any sexual activity at the adult’s direction. Maltreatment of children can take many forms, according to “Child Abuse and Neglect statistics” an article from the American Humane Society website, like neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and medical neglect. The end starts with the neglecting to abusing drugs and alcohol, because 70% of child abuse cases include the inflicter being under the influence. Sexual harassment is any sexual comments or unwanted requests for sexual behaviors. People don’t look at it as being harassed, because it is now so common in our lives we don’t even think twice about it. Because of that, Sexual harassment is hardly ever reported.

Sexual assault can happen to anyone no matter your gender, ethnicity, or age. “Sexual Violence in the United States”, an article from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center updated in 2015, says 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives. People in those statistics often suffer from PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Symptoms of PTSD can recur for up to as long as fifty years. Traumatic experiences bring forward survival skills that at the time are useful, but sometimes never go away, at that point they have acquired PTSD. Shutting down feelings is not uncommon for these people to do because they feel the need to do so in order to survive. Reminders of the trauma they experienced can activate symptoms like difficulty falling asleep, outbursts of anger, or hyper vigilance, which is an intense sensitivity to the senses. Unfortunately many people suffer from it thanks to the abusers.

What all abusers have in common is the need to feel in control. According to the previously cited book, abusers feel the only way to gain control is through physical force or threat. Most men do not abuse women, but the ones who do have a serious problem with anger and self esteem. For years women were blamed for being assaulted, people said they asked for it, and the courts refused to get involved in this matter. Till that all changed in the 1970’s with the Feminist Movement. Women finally began to join forces and speak up about the things happening behind closed doors. They established over one thousand shelters and at least one thousand domestic abuse hotlines in the United States, they also educated people about the problem. Progress was still slow despite all of their efforts, even today some states don’t recognize the issue of sexual assault, so survivors have nowhere to go in order to feel safe.

Programs for survivors are underfunded and little attention is paid to change the abusive men, even when rapists are caught they receive little treatment and often repeat the crimes once they are freed. The programs that do exist are developed to help survivors at any stages. They can offer counseling, medical care, community education, group counseling and so much more. Recovering from traumas like rape can take time and these programs can help out these survivors more than they can help themselves. The programs are not everywhere, so we need to spread the word and make it known that sexual assault is still around and is still a serious issue. Suicide at this point is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S, according to the article “Suicide Statistics”, by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and rape victims are four times more likely to become part of that statistic.

There are many different types of sexual assault that can happen to anyone. These survivors go through hard things while recovering and these programs are their only hope, without funding they are nothing. Survivors should get to feel safe in their own homes, they shouldn’t have to be cautious of every situation they get into; they should get to live their lives. All of that begins with just speaking out about the issue. Every 12 seconds a women is beaten by a man in the United States, and every 6 hours a life is lost to it, don’t add to the statistics.