Sexual Assault facts, fictions discussed Published April 19, 2007 By Tailwind Staff 60th Air Mobility Wing TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Fact vs. fiction Sexual Assault Awareness Month, continues to reinforce the Department of Defense's goal to eliminate sexual assault within the Armed Forces. The DoD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program consists of prevention, education and training, coupled with a comprehensive response capability that focuses on victim support, enhanced reporting procedures and system accountability. The DoD continues to strive toward achieving maximum safety and well-being for all its members. The DoD uses the following definition of sexual assault in its training and education program: intentional sexual contact, characterized by use of force, physical threat or abuse of authority, or when the victim does not or cannot consent. Sexual assault includes rape, non-consensual sodomy, indecent assault or attempts to commit such acts. Sexual assault can occur without regard to gender or spousal relationship or age of victim. "Consent" shall not be deemed or construed to mean the failure by the victim to offer physical resistance. Consent is not given when a person uses force, threat of force, coercion or when the victim is asleep, incapacitated or unconscious. Some commonly held beliefs regarding sexual assault are: Fiction: Rapes rarely occur. Fact: On average, 526 Americans per day reported being sexually assaulted in 2005. - Calculation based on data from the Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey, 2006 Fiction: Men are never the target of rape. Fact: One in 33 men (3 percent) and one in six women (17 percent) reported experiencing an attempted or completed rape at some time in their lives. - Tjaden and Thoennes, Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women, 2000 Fiction: Assailants rarely know their victims. Fact: More than 70 percent of victims know their attacker. - Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey, 2006 Fiction: Once a restricted report has been made to the SARC, you cannot change your preference from restricted to an unrestricted report.* Fact: Of the 435 restricted reports, 108 victims elected to change to the unrestricted reporting option, raising the total number of military criminal investigative organizations criminal investigations of Sexual Assault to 2,047 in 2005. - DoD 2005 Annual Report to Congress - Sexual Assault in the Military Services *Please note that while a restricted report can be changed to an unrestricted report, one cannot change preference selection from an unrestricted report to restricted because the investigative process has already begun.