By Samuel Smith, Opinions Editor

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every four girls below the age of 18 have experienced child sexual abuse. Also from the CDC, one out of every 13 boys below the age of 18 have experienced child sexual abuse.

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), one out of six American women, as well as one out of 33 American men, have experienced an attempted or completed rape over the course of their life.

According to United States Census Bureau data, there were 167.51 million women and 164.38 million men in the United States as of 2021. Put those numbers together and it paints a grim picture:

One out of every six women equals 27.92 million women.

One out of every 33 men equals 4.98 million men.

Sexual assault is an ever-growing, ever-present occurrence in the United States, with the rate of sexual assault-related ER visits alone increasing by 1500% from 2006 to 2022.

Rape is a traumatizing and violent act, leaving victims in its wake who are forced to cope with the ramifications of their free will being stolen from them. Regardless of sex, gender, race or creed, sexual assault is on the rise and the world at large has tried to extrapolate the cause of such an increase.

Following a survey on sexual assault within the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice outlined in a journal publication titled “What’s Behind the Dramatic Rise in Rapes?” a range of theories.

The publication’s abstract directly references multiple possible causes for the increase, ranging from an increased presence of sexual and violent content within mass media to cycles of abuse perpetuating violent behavior as well as a statistical increase in drug abuse within the United States.

Regardless of the factors contributing to the increase, sexual assault is impacting a large portion of all communities worldwide.

While women are disproportionately affected by sexual assault, the taboo nature of recognizing that men also can be sexual assault victims has led to many male victims of sexual violence staying silent. According to RAINN, roughly 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported, leaving the remaining assaults outside the reach of the law or researchers who publish statistics in the hopes that it will inform the populace.

A large factor in the unreported nature of assaults, specifically when dealing with male victims, is the abundantly common belief that women are the only victims of sexual assault. The proclivity of men to keep the details of an assault to themselves has been used by many psychologists to attempt to account for a likewise troubling statistic related to male suicide: According to the CDC, suicide deaths were experienced by men 3.88 times more than women in 2020.

Taboos involving men for decades have revolved around emotion, or more aptly the lack thereof, and have left modern adult males bereft of the willingness to receive help in the face of trauma.

Sexual assault is a traumatizing event in anybody’s life, regardless of whether they are a man or a woman, and awareness is slowly growing that anybody who has been sexually assaulted should be afforded the same respect and support from those around them.

If you or a loved one have been sexually assaulted or experienced some form of sexual abuse and are in need of support, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-656-4673.

If you or a loved one is experiencing suicidal thoughts or ideation, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is open 24/7 at 988.

Senior Samuel Smith can be reached at 23smithsa22@daretolearn.org.