More than 876,000 rapes are committed in a typical year in the United States, the first National Violence Against Women survey estimates.
That number is more than twice what other recent surveys have found. It is ammunition for advocates of rape victims and others who argue that rape is holding steady or growing while other violent crime declines.
''On face value, our findings show that rape is more prevalent than what the (annual) National Crime Victimization Survey shows,'' said Patricia Tjaden, a Denver researcher who co-authored the survey. In 1994, the most recent year available, the Crime Victimization Survey estimated that about 432,000 rapes occurred annually.
The Violence Against Women survey, which used detailed interviews with 8,000 women and 8,000 men, estimated that one in seven women has been raped. The survey was commissioned by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Justice.
Among other key findings:
Out of all rape victims interviewed, 54% say their first rape occurred before their 18th birthday.
The typical female rape victim is raped nearly three times a year, often by her husband or domestic partner.
Men suffer about 111,000 rapes in a typical year, over 80% committed by other men.
More than three out of four female victims are raped by a present or former domestic partner. Fewer than one in five male rape victims are raped by a partner.
The survey defined rape as oral, vaginal or anal intercourse accomplished by force or the threat of it. Annual rape numbers were developed by comparing the number of rape victims surveyed to the U.S. population.
The survey is the federal government's attempt to determine where, when and to whom rape occurs. It also sought to test the assumption that many or most rapes are perpetrated by strangers.
''This erases the idea that rapes are done by somebody who just jumps out of the bushes,'' said David Beatty, public policy director for the National Victim Center, an Arlington, Va., victims' advocacy group.
The survey used female interviewers, detailed questions and other methods to ''possibly increase the respondent's ability to be candid,'' Tjaden said.
She said that may partially account for why the survey's rape estimates are higher than previous tallies.
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