Criminal Sexual Penetration Incidents per 100,000 Population by County, New Mexico, 2018

Why Is This Important?

Sexual violence can have a profound and long lasting impact on a victim?s physical and mental health. The victim is often made to feel responsible for actions of the perpetrator. Victims of sexual abuse often live in fear and isolation, have low self-esteem, and abuse substances including alcohol. Victims may also become sexual violence perpetrators. Those sexually abused as children are at increased risk of becoming a victim of domestic violence. Rates of sexual assault are higher in New Mexico than in the United States overall -- according to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NIPSVS), 24.0% of women have been raped during their lifetime in New Mexico compared to 19.5% of women in the U.S. Forty-nine percent of all women in New Mexico, and 21% of all men, have reported they had experienced some form of sexual violence other than rape. Data from the 2015 New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (YRRS) indicate that 10.6% of high school girls and 4.1% of high school boys have been physically forced to have sex at some point during their lifetime. Data further indicate that youth who reported having a history of forced sex had more than twice the risk for alcohol use, tobacco use, and illicit drug use; and more than three times the risk for poor mental health outcomes, including suicide attempts and suicide ideation; compared to those youth who did not report a having a history of forced sex.

Definition

Number of criminal sexual penetration incidents reported to law enforcement

Data Notes

Data Source

How the Measure is Calculated