Sexual Assault Definition

Sexual violence is any act (verbal and/or physical) which breaks a person's trust or threatens her safety and is sexual in nature. Victims and survivors of sexual assaults are forced, coerced and/or manipulated to participate in the unwanted sexual activity.

Criminal sexual contact, sexual harassment, sexual stalking on the Internet,  and lewdness are also forms of sexual violence. Sexual assault is the legal term for rape and includes vaginal, oral or anal sex without the victim’s consent or with a victim who is unable to consent.

Facts:

• Approximately 66% of rape victims know their assailant.
• Approximately 48% of victims are raped by a friend or acquaintance; 30% by a stranger; 16% by an intimate; 2% by another relative; and in 4% of cases the relationship is unknown.¹

Remember:

• Sexual assault is a widespread and under-reported crime.
• Sexual assault is always against your will.
• No means no; silence means no; maybe means no.
• If someone is too drunk to say no, too disabled to say no, or too young to say no, that also means no.
• If someone is unable to safely say no, that does not mean yes.
• The only thing that means yes is yes -- providing that the person saying yes is at the age of consent.
• Teens especially need to know that they have the right to change their mind about having sex - even after it has begun.

For more information on laws about sexual assault, please see the NJ Law section.

If you or someone you know has been raped see What to Do or How you can help.

Notes