Victim advocate groups claim FBI statistics on the incidence of sexual assault in America, including date rape and spousal rape, are greatly understated. Advocates claim less than half of all sexual assaults are reported to authorities and less than 5% of all rapists ever spend a night in jail. Studies have shown that from 2000 to 2005, 59% of rapes were not reported to law enforcement. Nearly half of all rape victims are under 18 years of age, and 80% are under 30. More than two-thirds of these assaults are committed by someone known to the victim. It is estimated that 652,676 Americans were raped or sexually assaulted in the United States in 2018.The current arrest rate for rapists (24%) is the same now as it was in the ‘70s. Until recently, there was a backlog of about 400,000 completed DNA rape kits sitting and awaiting testing in the police departments of many American cities. Many of these kits sat unprocessed for up to a decade due to lack of funding for testing. It costs between $1,000 and $1,500 to test a rape kit. But significant progress has been made in processing most of these kits over the last couple of years, and there are now only about 100,000 kits remaining to be tested. As a result, thousands of surprised perpetrators have been brought to justice.

Pending Legislation: H.R.1620 - Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021 (passed House)
Sponsor: Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee (TX)
Status: Senate Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations (Veterans' Affairs)
Chair: Sen. John Tester (MT)