Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) calls attention to the fact that sexual violence is widespread and impacts every person in the community. SAAM aims to raise public awareness about sexual violence and educate communities about how to prevent it. Systems of oppression such as racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, etc. contribute to higher rates of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse. Unfortunately, those same groups are also the most impacted by inequitable systems of oppression in our society, and statistics show: • More than 1 in 4 non-Hispanic Black women (29%) in the United States were raped in their lifetime (Basile et al., 2022). • More than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women (84.3%) have experienced violence in their lifetime (Rosay, 2016). • 1 in 3 Hispanic women (34.8%) reported unwanted sexual contact in their lifetime (Basile et al., 2022). • 32.9% of adults with intellectual disabilities have experienced sexual violence (Tomsa et al., 2021). • 47% of all transgender people have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives (James et al., 2016). As such, we recognize that it will take ending all forms of oppression to end sexual violence worldwide.
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