Nearly one in five American women have been victims of rape or attempted rape at some point in their lives, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Wednesday in a disturbing report on sexual violence in the United States.
Releasing the results of a first-ever survey of nearly 10,000 women contacted randomly by telephone in 2010, the federal agency said 18.3 percent of women "have been raped at some time in their lives."
Just over half of female rape victims (51.1 percent) said they had been targeted by an "intimate partner" -- a current or former partner or spouse -- and 40.8 percent by an acquaintance.
It also found that 1.3 million women had been raped during the year preceding the survey -- a substantially higher number than the 188,380 rapes and sexual assaults cited in a Department of Justice crime survey for 2010.
And it revealed that 24.3 percent of women -- and nearly one in seven men -- have suffered "severe physical violence" at the hands of an intimate partner, such as being hit, slammed against a surface, or beaten.
"This landmark report paints a clear picture of the devastating impact these violent acts have on the lives of millions of Americans," Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.
The report also touched upon male rape, finding that one in 71 men -- nearly five percent of all American men -- had been raped in their lifetime.