There are probably more men than women raped in the United States every year — most of them in prison. Best estimates put the annual number of prison rapes at about 140,000, which is 50,000 more than the 90,000 or so rapes of women reported to police.

NotSoSober · 2011-06-02T05:36:01+00:00

What's equally scary is the blase acceptance of jail-rape as an attendant 'hidden cost' of prison.

People almost seem to relish the idea that criminals will be raped. WTF.

Prison violence and rape is none other than vigilantism. It's long past time for the prison system to be reformed so that only the state-ordered sanctions impact prisoners.

tayto · 2011-06-02T03:54:42+00:00

rapes of women reported to police

You are taking estimates of men raped and putting them up against police reports of women raped. The latest numbers presented in my wife's Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner course was that 5% of American men over 18 and 20% of women over 18 have been raped. The under-reporting of rape is a massive problem for both men and women. Men need to be less embarrassed by the crime, and women need to be more willing to come forward when it is a known acquaintance that raped them.

Your point that rape in prison is a major problem is perfectly valid, but even that is not a male-only issue. The rates are worse for men, and due to the high number of men imprisoned in the US, the difference in total numbers is huge, but it is not solely a male issue.

Unless the assumed rates of reporting rape are off 5-fold, no, there are not "probably more men than women raped in the United States."

BPhair · 2011-06-01T21:36:27+00:00

Could you cite some sources, please? This could be a very good point you are making, but it would be stronger if we had something to read to back it up.

Kill_The_Rich · 2011-06-02T03:55:53+00:00

Only about 41% of all rapes/sexual assaults are reported to the police (according to the 2008 NCVS). Using your numbers, that would put the total somewhere around 220k. I'm pretty sure the NCVS doesn't include prisoners (but I could be wrong), so we'd be looking at about 38% of all rapes being prisoner-rape.

Comments