Friday, December 16, 2011

Almost one in five U.S. women have been sexually assaulted, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In a 2010 survey of 16,507 adults, 18.3 percent of women and 1.4 percent of men said they had been victims of rape or attempted rape at some point in their lives, the CDC said today in the first report of its kind.Victims of domestic violence, rape or stalking are more likely to suffer long-term health problems such as frequent headaches, chronic pain and difficulty sleeping, the CDC report said. Previous research by the health agency suggests such violence costs the U.S. more than $8 billion in medical expenses, mental-health costs and lost productivity.“The numbers from the first year of data collection are astounding,” Linda Degutis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said on a conference call with reporters. The survey is the first to provide national estimates and data from all states on sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking, she said.About 1.3 million women were sexually assaulted in the 12 months prior to the survey, according to the report. About 5.2 million women, and 1.4 million men, were stalked in that period. More than 12 million women and men said they had been the victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the previous year, Degutis said.“Most of these victims first experienced these types of violence before they were 25 years old, often during their teenage years,” she said.

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