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"We need to wake people up to the attitudes and actions that continue to keep victims at risk and our cities, towns and cultural communities unsafe." ~ Paulo Pinto, MPA, Executive Director, MAPS - Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers
Massachusetts Snapshot
There's not one data set that fully provides a picture of the prevalence and pervasiveness of sexual and domestic violence in Massachusetts. Some data is available through reporting about service delivery...but that doesn't quantify all the survivors who have not had contact with a local program. Some data is based on police reports...but that doesn't account for immigrants, people who are LGBT, or others who do not reach out to the police for help for a variety of reasons.
Here's an example: A 2003 study entitled Rape In Massachusetts: A Report to the Commonwealth used a very conservative definition of rape that only included penetration by force and found that 1 in 7 (13.3%) adult women in Massachusetts have been victims of one or more completed forcible rapes during their lifetime. As alarming as this number is, we know that the magnitude of the problem is even greater because the report did not include women who have never been forcibly raped but who have experienced attempted rapes, alcohol or drug facilitated rapes, or statutory rapes, and male rape victims of any age.
Even with these caveats and limiations, the following incidence data* demonstrates how significant an issue this is in Massachusetts.
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2,564 sexual assaults were reported to rape crisis centers in Massachusetts in 2010.*
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Eleven percent (11%) of Massachusetts’ adult residents report having experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetime.
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In 2005, eighteen percent (18%) of Massachusetts adult residents reported having experienced an incident of intimate partner violence at some time in their life.
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Eleven percent (11%) of high school students and six percent (6%) of middle school students reported being physically hurt by a date sometime in their life.*
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Between 2003 and September 30, 2011, 250 domestic violence related homicides were identified in Massachusetts.
* Data compiled from Jane Doe Inc. and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Looking for more data?
Massachusetts Factsheets prepared by JDI.
MA 2011 Sexual Violence Factsheet
MA 2010 Stalking Factsheet
MA 2010 Domestic Factsheet
Domestic Violence Homicides in MA 2003–2010
Massachusetts Data Sources
Explore these government sources and reports for additional Massachusetts-specific reports and data on sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking.
