Sexual assault is a violent crime, not a sexual one. Assailants use sex to humiliate and to inflict violence on victims, or to exert power and control over them. The victim of sexual assault can be any age, race, or social background. Victims have been as young as six months and as old as ninety three. The threat of rape is a reality for all women.
Rapists can be anyone.
Most are married or have ongoing relationships with women. The rapist is motivated by the need for power and the need to dominate someone weaker. In over half of all reported rapes, the victim and the rapist know each other. Two thirds of all rapes are planned in advance and more than eight out of ten rapists have raped before. The causes of rape are rooted in a society that teaches men to seek power through domination of others and that has traditionally presumed that the victim has a role in provoking the sexual assault.