April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month

TW: Rape, Sexual Assault, Intimate Partner Violence

April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Approximately 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men will experience sexual assault of some form in their lifetime. Roughly 28% of men who have experienced completed rape experienced it prior to the age of 10. Roughly 42% of women who have experienced completed rape experienced it prior to the age of 18 (NSVRC, 2025). Sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sexual coercion are issues that can impact anyone regardless of gender identity, race/ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religious identity, or socioeconomic status. This month, our focus is on raising awareness, educating, and supporting prevention efforts.

Why do Survivors/Victims Wait to Report?

Rape/sexual assault is the most under-reported crime. Roughly 63% of sexual assaults are not reported to law enforcement and only 12% of child sexual abuse crimes are reported to law enforcement (NSVRC, 2025). Many question, why do survivors wait to come forward, if they choose to report at all? Well, there are several reasons for this.

First, many survivors are subjected to scrutiny, their experiences are invalidated by others, and many experience shame and blame and are made to believe that the rape was their fault. Because of this stigma, many choose to never come forward about their experiences thus are never given the opportunity to heal.

Next, rape within a marriage has only been illegal since 1953 (Bergen & Barnhill, 2006). Before this, consent was not accounted for within a marriage. Approximately one third of women have experienced a form of sexual assault from their husband and many likely do not report because of the leniency previously given towards this crime.

Another consideration is how often these crimes are solved by law enforcement. For example, in Douglas County, Colorado, in 2024, while there were a reported 137 cases of sexual violence, only about 34% of those cases came to a resolution (DCSO, 2025). Many survivors may assume that their case will not come to a resolution, so they may consider if making the report is worth the energy and retraumatization.

Blaming Survivors/Victims

Often, many survivors/victims of sexual violence experience blame from their community, helping professionals, and those within the courts. Often, survivors will hear statements such as “well they should not have been dressed that way”, “I saw how they were acting, practically asking for it”, “they initially said yes, they can’t take that back”. or “they didn’t really say no”. These statements are not only harmful, but also shift the blame to the survivor which speaks to a larger societal view on sexual violence that perpetuates continued violence. Instead of putting the fault on the survivor, what if we shifted to putting fault where it lies: on the perpetrator and on social dynamics that allow for these acts of violence to continue?

Risk & Protective Factors

Risk and protective factors are important to identify as this can be part of a larger conversation on preventing sexual assault, sexual coercion, and sexual harassment. Risk and protective factors can: connect us to others doing similar to strengthen partnerships, increase reach of awareness, and get more funding; connect larger societal issues and oppression to prevention work; and can provide a better foundation to help people talk about prevention work.

Risk factors are behaviors and/or conditions that are associated with a greater likelihood of sexual violence perpetration. Risk factors can include (but are not limited to:

• Social norms that support sexual violence (ex: using phrases such as “boys will be boys”)

• Lack of employment opportunities

• Childhood abuse

• Lack of empathy

• Unsupportive family environment

• Weak health, economic, gender, educational, and social policies

Protective factors are behaviors and/or conditions that reduce or buffer against the risk for sexual violence perpetration. Protective factors can include (but are not limited to):

• Access to mental health and substance use services

• Connection/commitment to school

• Empathy and caring about how one’s actions impact others

• Community support/connectedness

• Positive childhood influences

While risk and protective factors factors can be contributing factors to sexual violence, there is no one factor, or even combination factors, that can be considered a direct cause of sexual violence. When considering this, it is important to focus prevention efforts towards a holistic view of understanding risk factors, protective factors, and social determinants at the individual, societal, and community level.

Healing From Sexual Violence

It is important to consider how we can support survivors in healing from sexual violence. In a therapeutic setting, clinicians may often use trauma-based approaches such as cognitive processing or EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing). Receiving professional support can help mitigate long-term impacts from sexual violence. When looking for a provider, it is essential that the survivor feels comfortable with their provider and that they are working with someone who is trained in providing trauma therapy.

Outside of professional guidance, there are things that the loved ones of survivors can do to be supportive of the healing process. Remember, there is no timeline for the healing process. While offering support is an important part of the process, it is important to have realistic expectations on their healing journey. Allow them time and space to heal. The following techniques can help you navigate supporting a survivor:

• Believe them: not being believed can feel like a significant betrayal, it is rare for someone to lie about experiencing sexual violence.

• Listen to them: it may be difficult or upsetting to hear about their experience, but it’s important to lend a listening ear.

• Remember that it isn’t their fault: The blame, responsibility, and shame should lie with the perpetrator, not with the survivor. Survivors may already struggle with self-blame, it’s important to let them know that the fault is not theirs.

• Understand how hard it was for them to share this with you: for many survivors, this may be the most difficult part of their life to share, let them know that you understand how much strength it takes to come forward and share.

• Let them have control: It may be tempting to take control to help them “fix” the situation, but they need to be granted the autonomy to take charge of their life.

• Respect their decisions: Survivors will know what’s best for them after experiencing sexual violence, try to not judge or ignore decisions that they make for themselves.

• Respect their boundaries: Many survivors may struggle to trust others after experiencing assault. It’s important to not betray their trust; be patient and do not push them until they are ready.

Oftentimes, people who mean well may accidentally cause further harm to a survivor of sexual violence. Here are some tips to ensure this doesn’t happen:

• Don’t ask them why they didn’t say anything sooner: There are so many reasons why a survivor may not discuss their experience. Questioning this may make them feel as though it’s their fault for not coming forward sooner.

• Don’t judge them for their actions before or after experiencing sexual violence: There is never any reason for rape or other forms of sexual violence. All survivors deserve support and to be free of any blame or shame associated with the act.

• Don’t ask why they didn’t run away or try to fight: Everyone reacts differently to experiencing trauma. Sometimes freezing is an automatic response that we have no control over.

• Don’t judge how they’ve responded to experiencing sexual violence: There are no ‘right’ responses to experiencing sexual violence, everyone reacts differently and all responses are valid.

• Don’t tell others their story without permission: Telling their story can lead to further betrayal and retraumatization.

What Resources are Available?

There are both local and national resources that are available to survivors or anyone who is wanting to learn more about this issue.

One national resource is RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network; rainn.org) which is an organization committed to supporting survivors. RAINN has a 24/7, confidential hotline that can be accessed via web, phone call, text, or whatsapp. They also are largely involved in changing policy surrounding sexual abuse/sexual assault. Another national resource that does prevention work is NSVRC (National Sexual Violence Resource Center; nsvrc.org) who can support survivors in getting touch with resources.

Locally, violencefreecolorado.org can help you to locate your nearest domestic violence/sexual assault resource center that can help you navigate next steps to take (in Douglas County, thecrisiscenter.org will be the nearest organization).