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Rape was defined as an event that occurred without the victim’s consent, that involved the use or threat of force to penetrate the victim’s vagina or anus by penis, tongue, fingers, or object, or the victim’s mouth by penis. The definition included both attempted and completed rape. The following questions were used to screen respondents for rape victimization:

• [Female respondents only] Has a man or boy ever made you have sex by using force or threatening to harm you or someone close to you? Just so there is no mistake, by sex we mean putting a penis in your vagina.

• Has anyone, male or female, ever made you have oral sex by using force or threat of force? Just so there is no mistake, by oral sex we mean that a man or boy put his penis in your mouth or someone, male or female, penetrated your vagina or anus with their mouth.

• Has anyone ever made you have anal sex by using force or threat of harm? Just so there is no mistake, by anal sex we mean that a man or boy put his penis in your anus.

• Has anyone, male or female, ever put fingers or objects in your vagina or anus against your will or by using force or threats?

• Has anyone, male or female, ever attempted to make you have vaginal, oral, or anal sex against your will, but intercourse or penetration did not occur?

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Exhibit 1: Persons Raped or Physically Assaulted in Lifetime by Sex of Victim

	Percentage		Number
Type of Assault	Women (n=8,000)	Men (n=8,000)	Women (100,697,000)	Men (92,748,000)
Total rape	17.6	3.0	17,722,672	2,782,440
Completed	14.8	2.1	14,903,156	1,947,708
Attempted only	2.8	0.9	2,819,516	834,732

17.5% of women is a little more than 1:6. 3.0% of men is a little more than 1:33.

Please note that this is not based on police reports. A good thing, too. Since over 90% of rapes are never reported to police, there is no serious research on sexual assault that you could possibly base on police reports. The research is based on carefully constructed anonymous telephone surveys of a (very large) random sample (N=~16,000) of men and women. There is no particular incentive for people to lie about it or conceal their experiences, as far as I can tell.

Sexual abuse against men and boys is appalling, and it happens to a lot more men and boys than people think. But it is very infrequent compared to sexual abuse against women and girls. I’d really urge you to make some serious effort at reading some of the social science research on this topic before you start trying to make up ways to get around what seems to be the obvious conclusion of that research.