How is “rape” defined here, and for most research studies? Completed or attempted vaginal, anal or oral sexual intercourse through the threat or actual use of force, or because the victim is incapacitated by drugs or alcohol. (Note: penetration can be with any body part or object, not just the penis.)Īttempted rape is included not only because it is a crime, but because it can be very traumatic and harmful to victims. It presents the available evidence on the percentage of college men who acknowledge committing rape on surveys the percentage of rapists who are “repeat rapists,” or admit to raping more than once the percentage of all rapes that are committed by repeat rapists and the percentage of rapists who admit to perpetrating rape during more than one year of college. This page presents, in simple terms with links to scientific research, statistics on repeat rape among college men. It is critical that journalists, policy makers and everyone else working to address campus sexual assault understand these basic statistics on college rapists and repeat rape, and avoid apples-to-oranges comparisons of statistics about completely different things. However, that 25% statistic depends on rapists, including repeat rapists, being equally honest, year after year, on survey questions about rape. Finally, in the study of typical college men about 25% of rapists, the majority of whom are repeat offenders, admitted to raping in more than one year of college. A study of college-aged Navy recruits had the same findings, which suggests that these statistics are not determined by whether men are college students or not. Both studies found that two-thirds or more of college rapists are repeat rapists who have raped four or more times on average, even within a single year of college.ĭue to simple math, those two-thirds of college rapists who average four or more rapes each account for the vast majority of college rapes, around 90% or more. Only two studies of college men had large enough samples to investigate what percentage of rapists are repeat rapists, one a study of typical 18-22 year old men at large university and the other of older men at a commuter school. In many studies researchers have found that 4-16% of college men report committing rapes. Research suggests that about two-thirds of college rapists are repeat offenders, who account for the great majority of rapes (over 90%), and that about one-fourth of college rapists admit to committing rapes over multiple years of college.

Most rapes are committed by