Rennison, C. (2003). Criminal Victimization, 2002. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, USDOJ.

Teens, Victimization, and Trauma

Nearly 2 million teens become victims of violent crime each year
Teens are:
14% of the general population
31% of victims of violent crime
twice as likely as adults to become victims of crime.

Assault

Teens experience the highest rates of violent crime.
In 2001, males and females were victims of simple assault at similar rates.
Assault is the most common violent crime in America.
Juveniles constitute 19 percent of all assault victims. Simple assault is the most common crime committed against juveniles, constituting 41 percent of all offenses against juveniles known to the police.

Bullying

One in 12 students who stay home from school does so because he or she is afraid to go to school.
Three out of four students report that they have been bullied at some time while they were in school.
Bullying is reported as most severe in grades seven to nine, with grades four to six being next in severity, but it can happen in any grade.
Sixty percent of victims/targets report being bullied by boys, and 40 percent report being bullied by girls.

Child Sexual Abuse

One in three girls are sexually abused before the age of 18, and one in six boys are sexually abused before age 16.
In 1998 there were 315,400 reported cases of child sexual abuse in the United States.
Roughly 50 percent of all victims of forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling cases reported to law enforcement involve children under 12.
Studies indicate that 15 to 30 percent of females in the US are or have been victims of some kind of childhood sexual abuse.
Ninety percent of cases involve abuse by a male, and many abusers are under 17 years old.

Dating Violence

One in three teenagers has experienced violence in a dating relationship.
Fifty to 80 percent of teens have reported knowing others who were involved in violent relationships.
Fifteen percent of teen girls and boys have reported being victims of severe dating violence (defined as being hit, thrown down, or attacked with a weapon.
Eight percent of eighth and ninth grade students have reported being victims of sexual dating violence.
Young women ages 16 to 24 experience the highest rates of relationship violence.

Hate Crimes

There were 7,462 hate crime incidents reported to law enforcement in 2002.Approximately 64 percent of bias-motivated offenses were committed against persons, and 38 percent were offenses against property.
Of reported crimes, 49 percent of hate crime incidents were motivated by race, 19 percent by religion, 17 percent by sexual orientation, 15 percent by ethnicity, and .6 percent by disability.
In 2002, 1,968 incidents of hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) victims affected 2,254 people were perpetrated by 2,810 offenders. These incidents included 3,555 distinct crimes and offenses.
Amoung anti-LGBT incidents in 2002, there were 7i55 assaults, 703 intimidations, 142 acts of vandalism, 115 sexual assaults/rapes, 82 robberies, and 12 murders.
The Anti-Defamation League reported 1,559 anti-Semitic incidents in 2002, and acts of vandalism (property damage, cemetery desecration, or anti-Semitic graffiti) accounted for more than a third (531).

Robbery and Property Crime

One study found that for every thousand teens, 166 had reported crime, compared to 118 adults.
About half of the property crimes that occur don't get reported.

Sexual Assault

Sexual assault is a widespread and underreported crime.
In 1999, law enforcement received 89,107 reports of rapes.
Rapes increased by 20 percent and sexual assaults by more than 30 percent in 1999.
In the most recent National Violence Against Women Survey, more than 300,000 women and 90,000 men reported being victims of attempted or completed rapes in the previous year.
Acquaintance rapes account for 93 percent of all rapes of teens. A woman is more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone she knows than by a stranger.
Sexual assault can take place in both opposite-sex and same-sex relationships.

Sexual Harassment

Eighty-one percent of students will experience some form of sexual harassment at some time while they are in school, with 27 percent experiencing it often.
Eighty-five percent of students report that students harass other students at their schools.
Almost 40 percent of students report that teachers and other school employees sexually harass students in their schools.

Stalking

In the United States, 1,006,970 women and 370,990 men are stalked annually.
Seventy-seven percent of female victims and 64 percent of male victims know their stalker.
Most victims are stalked for 1.8 years.
Eighty-two percent of stalkers of female victims followed them, spied on them, or stood outside their homes or places of work or recreation; 61 percent of stalkers made unwanted phone calls; 33 percent sent or left unwanted letters or items; 29 percent vandalized property; and 9 percent killed or threatened to kill a family pet.