
Let's break it down:
- Statistics show that 93% of juvenile sexual assault victims knew their attacker (source)
- 85-90% of sexual assaults reported by college women are committed by someone known to the victim, half of which occur on a date (source)
- Violent attacks committed by strangers only accounted for about 38% of all nonfatal violence, including assault, robbery, rape and sexual assault, in 2010 (source)
- From 1993 to 2008, among homicides reported to the FBI for which the victim-offender relationship was known, between 21-27% of homicides were committed by strangers and between 73-79% were committed by offenders known to the victims (source)
- Children taken by strangers or slight acquaintances represent only 0.01% of all missing children (source)
Do violent attacks happen by strangers? Yes, however as you can see, they only account for a relatively small number of violent crimes. Unfortunately, that brings up a rather uncomfortable discussion. How do you tell children that the ones they love and trust are most likely to hurt them? Yeah, it sucks, but these are the conversations we need to be having with our children. We need to teach them to be vigilant and speak up if they feel uncomfortable, and not dismiss those feelings when we're told. But are we in the martial arts community at fault too?