Under the law, sexual assault is any unwanted act of sexual nature, including rape and any other unwanted fondling or touching. But more than half of all sexual assaults take place in private homes. All kinds of women are sexually assaulted - women from every walk of life. Women of all ages and physical types are sexually assaulted, including elderly and disabled women. Any woman can sexually assaulted.
Most people think of sexual assault as a woman being sexually attacked by a stranger.
But more than half of all sexual assaults are committed by men who are known to the women. When a woman knows the man who sexually assaults her, it is less likely that what has happened to her will be seen as a sexual assault, even by her. She is also less likely to be believed. But these sexual assaults are no less a crime than those committed by strangers. Men who commit sexual assault can be the husbands, partners, relatives, boyfriends, employers, co-workers, doctors, teachers or lawyers of the women they assault.