--- title: Women Raped: 1 in 5 in U.S. description: Approximately one in five women in the U.S. is raped during her lifetime, according to data released Friday canonical: https://time.com/3275859/american-women-raped/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-05T22:44:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:25.208Z og:title: Women Raped: 1 in 5 in U.S. og:description: Approximately one in five women in the U.S. is raped during her lifetime, according to data released Friday og:url: https://time.com/3275859/american-women-raped/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00c24d67926c35de/6986a23f1eebf73ae637286e/158781471.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1435 og:image:height: 807 og:image:alt: woman silo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Women Raped: 1 in 5 in U.S. twitter:description: Approximately one in five women in the U.S. is raped during her lifetime, according to data released Friday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00c24d67926c35de/6986a23f1eebf73ae637286e/158781471.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 1 in 5 U.S. Women Are Raped at Some Point, Report Says > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=908c5268-316c-48c1-942b-f72488c1ebeb&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit [Watch (HLS stream): Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ewC6QwWR.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2014-07-17. There's currently a backlog of Rape kits in America. But what are they, and what's exactly in one?_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Sep 5, 2014 10:44 PM UTC  Sunset silhouette Sunset silhouette Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Sep 5, 2014 10:44 PM UTC About 1 in 5 women in the U.S. is raped during their life, according to data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And another 40% experience another form of sexual violence. “Although progress has been made in efforts to prevent sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence, these forms of violence continue to exact a substantial toll upon U.S. adults,” the CDC study said. The problem of sexual violence is particularly acute at younger ages. More than half of female victims said they were violated before they reached age 25\. This finding is consistent with a UNICEF [report](http://time.com/3272638/un-unicef-report-girls-rape-sexual-violence-1-in-10/) released Thursday that suggests that 1 in 10 girls worldwide is raped before age 20. The CDC recommended a number of steps to combat sexual violence, including trying to change societal expectations and promoting safe relationships. “The early promotion of healthy relationships while behaviors are still relatively modifiable makes it more likely that young persons can avoid violence in their relationships,” the report said. ## Transcript A rape kit or evidence collection kit has all the information in this one box. The first step is the oral swab and smear. The second envelope involves [ UNKNOWN ] specimens. The third step is trace evidence. The fourth step is collecting [ CROSSTALK ]. [ CROSSTALK ] The reason for having a rape kit is to preserve the evidence and to maintain chain of custody. Which means that. It will be very helpful for law enforcement to prosecute a case if we have been sure that all the steps are followed and that nobody else contaminated that evidence. And it has 15 envelopes that go from less intrusive to more intrusive. It can take up to seven hours sometimes. Depending on the patience, level of emotional distress or depending of if the patient is intoxicated. Also the examiner has to change gloves in between envelopes, has to explain to the patient each step. Has to get consent. The first set of envelopes are non- genital. So it involves swabs of the mouth. And, fingernail scraping and a bunch of other smears and swabs to collect debris and any other evidence that can be used. The last part of the process is the genital part which is often the hardest. Ist. They involve anal swabs, vaginal swabs, and perianal swabs and cervical area for women. Those can be very, very traumatizing and often, it's just going to have that patient have flashbacks and start really to have post traumatic stress disorder symptoms. A lot of patients will. Percent very upset, other will laugh. So there isn't, they all present differently. But what is certain is that the kits can really take some rapist from the community. And what we know about perpetrators of sexual assault is that they often do it many times. Times, so if you can take one because of one good rave kit, then you're saving a lot of people's' lives. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3275859/american-women-raped/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3275859/american-women-raped/"},"headline":"1 in 5 U.S. Women Are Raped at Some Point, Report Says","datePublished":"2014-09-05T22:44:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:45:25.208Z","description":"The majority experience sexual violence before age 25","url":"https://time.com/3275859/american-women-raped/","keywords":["Living","Rape","Crime","Dating","Sex","U.S.","relationships","CDC","health","safety"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00c24d67926c35de/6986a23f1eebf73ae637286e/158781471.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00c24d67926c35de/6986a23f1eebf73ae637286e/158781471.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"woman silo","caption":"woman silo","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3275859/american-women-raped/","name":"1 in 5 U.S. Women Are Raped at Some Point, Report Says"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Justice in a Box: Unboxing a Rape Kit","description":"There's currently a backlog of Rape kits in America. 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