About a third of victims of violence perceived the offender to have been using drugs or alcohol or both at the time of the offense. Since 1988, handgun crime rates have risen. In 1992, the handgun crime rate, 4.3 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older, was at the highest rate ever recorded, surpassing the previous high of 4.0 reached in 1982. One in every five rapes and over half of all robberies involve a weapon. When some type of weapon is used, it is a handgun in slightly more than 1 in 3 rapes and 4 in 10 robberies.
Strangers are more likely than nonstrangers to use firearms.
Nonstrangers are somewhat more likely than strangers to use a knife. Four out of five violent incidents with firearms involve a handgun. Men and women were about equally likely to take some kind of self-protective action. BJS, Violence Against Women, January 1994, NCJ-145325. BJS Bulletin, Crime and the Nation's Households,1992, August 1993, NCJ-143288.