Facts to Consider

In many cases of sexual assault, the offender is a man the woman is dating. This is commonly called "date rape". In other cases, the offender is someone who is known to the woman, perhaps a co-worker, an employer, a neighbour or a friend. This is known as acquaintance rape. Although date and acquaintance rape is no less a crime than sexual assault by a stranger, it tends to be ignored or denied by people because the offender is known to the victim.

"Date rape" has the lowest reporting rate of all forms of sexual assault. It is estimated that only 1% of all "date/acquaintance rapes" are reported to police. ¹

Less than 10% of Canadian university and college women who are abused by their dating partners report their experiences to someone in authority at their school.² There are many reasons for women's failure to report including: failure to recognize "date rape" as sexual assault; feeling responsible in some way for the assault; fear of not being believed and shame at having been violated.

The Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women reports that 31% of sexual assaults occur in dating and acquaintance relationships. ³

The majority of date and acquaintance rape victims are young women age 16 to 24. ⁴

A 1993 study on "date rape" in Canadian universities and colleges found that 28% of women reported that they were sexually assaulted in the 12 months preceding the study; 45% of female participants stated that they had been sexually assaulted since leaving high school. ⁵

In a 1996 study on "date rape" in Canadian high schools, 14.5% female participants stated that their partners physically forced them to engage in sex acts. Some 8.3% of women stated that their partners threatened to physically force them into sexual activities. ⁶

Reporting Issues

The Impact on Health

Further Resources

Education Wife Assault (EWA)(1998). Dating Violence: An Annotated
Bibliography. Toronto: EWA. 1998.
Addiction Research Foundation (ARF)(1996). Love's Not Supposed
To Hurt. 30 min Video. Toronto: ARF: (now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health).
Schwartz. M.D. (1997). Women abuse on campus: results from the
Canadian national survey. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

References

1. Russell, D. (1984). Sexual Exploitation: Rape, Child Abuse
   and Workplace Harassment. California: Sage Publishing.
2. Currie, D (1995). Student Safety at the University of British
   Columbia: Preliminary findings of a study of student safety. Vancouver: University of British Columbia.
3. The Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women (1993). Changing the Landscape: Ending Violence, Achieving Equality. Ottawa: Author.
4. Lenskyj, H. (1992). An Analysis of Violence Against Women:
   A Manual for Educators and Administrators. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
5. DeKeserdy, W., & Kelly, K.. (1993). "The Incidence and Prevalence of Woman Abuse in Canadian University and College Dating Relationships". Canadian Journal of Sociology. Vol. 18, 157-159.
6. DeKeserdy, W., & Schwartz, M. (1998). Woman Abuse on Campus. Results From the Canadian National Survey. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing.