Assault

About 27 percent of the 814 women survey respondents* report being assaulted at least once in public by a stranger.

“I was raped when I was a teenager by an unknown person who had followed me into the park.”
– 30-39 year-old heterosexual Anglo American in San Jose, California

“I was sexually assaulted once when I was walking my dog near my residence.”
– 20-29 year-old heterosexual Singaporean in Singapore

“I got raped while hitchhiking.”
– 60-69 year-old heterosexual Anglo American in Houston, Texas

“I have been sexually attacked on the street in an upscale, quiet neighborhood. My instincts and experience being harassed on the street enabled me to fight him off. Fortunately, I was able to fight as no one came to my rescue.”
– 60-69 year-old heterosexual Anglo American in Somerville, Massachusetts

* I conduced an online informal survey in fall 2008 to learn more about people's experiences in public, including street harassment. Nine hundred and sixteen people had useable responses and they came from a range of backgrounds and geographic locations, demonstrating the prevalence of street harassment globally. Survey-takers selected age-range categories from “13-19” through “80 and older;” they represented every major American racial group; they identified as bisexual, gay, heterosexual, lesbian, queer, “other;” and they came from 45 American states, 23 countries, and five continents.