{
  "slug": "sexual-harassment-lifetime",
  "question": "What are the odds of experiencing sexual harassment?",
  "category": "crime",
  "tags": [
    "workplace"
  ],
  "no_reliable_estimate": false,
  "perceived": {
    "description": "Gallup's 2025 crime-worry poll finds 21% of US adults worry frequently or occasionally about being sexually assaulted — a figure that masks a stark gender split: 38% of women versus 4% of men. Among women under 50, the figure rises to about 42%. Yet the question asks about assault, not the broader category of harassment, so the worry metric likely understates concern about the wider phenomenon captured by prevalence surveys.\n",
    "rough_estimate": "~1 in 3 women perceive it as likely for themselves",
    "kind": "poll",
    "survey_source": {
      "title": "Crime in U.S. Seen as Less Serious for Second Straight Year",
      "publisher": "Gallup",
      "url": "https://news.gallup.com/poll/697124/crime-seen-less-serious-second-straight-year.aspx",
      "year": 2025
    }
  },
  "native": {
    "display": "81% of women and 43% of men report some form in their lifetime",
    "numerator": 81,
    "denominator": 100,
    "unit": "lifetime prevalence",
    "population": "US adults (SSH/GfK nationally representative survey, 2018)"
  },
  "normalized": {
    "lifetime_us_adult": 0.62,
    "display": "~3 in 5 US adults (population-weighted)",
    "log_value": -0.21,
    "assumptions": "The Stop Street Harassment / GfK 2018 nationally representative survey of 2,000 US adults found 81% of women and 43% of men experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault in their lifetime. Using Census sex distribution (~51% female, ~49% male): (0.81 × 0.51) + (0.43 × 0.49) ≈ 0.413 + 0.211 ≈ 0.62. This is a population-weighted lifetime prevalence, not a per-year rate compounded forward. The CDC's NISVS 2023/2024 data reports lower figures for specific subcategories (e.g., 30.4% of women for verbal workplace harassment), reflecting narrower definitions. The SSH figure uses the broadest definition — verbal harassment, unwanted touching, cyber harassment, and assault combined — and is the most-cited headline number. The 0.62 population-average is conservative in the sense that it weights equally across sexes; the lived experience is dramatically skewed.\n",
    "uncertainty": {
      "low": 0.45,
      "high": 0.72
    },
    "scope": "us_adult_lifetime"
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://stopstreetharassment.org/our-work/nationalstudy/2018-national-sexual-abuse-report/",
      "title": "2018 Study on Sexual Harassment and Assault",
      "publisher": "Stop Street Harassment / GfK",
      "source_type": "primary_study",
      "statistic": "81% of women and 43% of men experienced some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime",
      "excerpt": "\"Nationwide, 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. Verbal sexual harassment was the most common form (77% of women and 34% of men). An alarming 51% of women and 17% of men said they were touched or groped in an unwelcome way.\"\n",
      "source_date": "2018-02-21",
      "source_accessed": "2026-04-18",
      "archive_url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260427022500/https://stopstreetharassment.org/our-work/nationalstudy/2018-national-sexual-abuse-report/",
      "calculation_notes": "SSH commissioned a 2,000-person nationally representative survey conducted by GfK (now Ipsos). The 81% (women) and 43% (men) figures cover all forms of sexual harassment and assault combined: verbal harassment, unwanted touching/groping, cyber harassment, being followed, genital flashing, and sexual assault. Population-weighted average: (0.81 × 0.51) + (0.43 × 0.49) ≈ 0.62. Pro bono data analysis by UC San Diego Center on Gender Equity and Health.\n"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.cdc.gov/nisvs/media/pdfs/sexualviolence-brief.pdf",
      "title": "National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2023/2024 Sexual Violence Data Brief",
      "publisher": "CDC, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control",
      "source_type": "govt_report",
      "statistic": "30.4% of women experienced verbal sexual harassment in the workplace; 11.3% of men; 29.5% of women in public places",
      "excerpt": "\"Approximately 1 in 3 women in the U.S. experienced verbal sexual harassment in the workplace (30.4%) or public place (29.5%), and more than 1 in 4 women experienced technology-facilitated sexual violence in their lifetimes (28.2%). One in 9 men (11.3%) experienced verbal sexual harassment in the workplace.\"\n",
      "source_date": "2025-12-01",
      "source_accessed": "2026-04-18",
      "archive_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260429165643/https://www.cdc.gov/nisvs/media/pdfs/sexualviolence-brief.pdf",
      "calculation_notes": "CDC NISVS 2023/2024 uses narrower subcategories than the SSH survey. The workplace verbal harassment figure (30.4% women) is not directly comparable to the SSH 81% because SSH aggregates all forms and all settings. The NISVS figure serves as a conservative lower bound for workplace-specific verbal harassment and confirms the order of magnitude. Nearly half of women experienced contact sexual violence in their lifetimes per NISVS.\n",
      "independence_note": "NISVS is a CDC random-digit-dial telephone survey, methodologically independent of the SSH/GfK online panel survey. The two use different sampling frames, question wording, and definitions of harassment.\n"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://news.gallup.com/poll/697124/crime-seen-less-serious-second-straight-year.aspx",
      "title": "Crime in U.S. Seen as Less Serious for Second Straight Year",
      "publisher": "Gallup",
      "source_type": "reputable_reference",
      "statistic": "21% of US adults worry frequently or occasionally about being sexually assaulted (2025); 38% of women vs 4% of men",
      "excerpt": "\"Fewer Americans say they worry about crimes, such as having a car stolen (39%) or their home burglarized (34%), being a victim of a hate crime (30%), or getting mugged (29%), attacked while driving (27%), murdered (22%) or sexually assaulted (21%).\"\n",
      "source_date": "2025-10-30",
      "source_accessed": "2026-04-18",
      "archive_url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260424191206/https://news.gallup.com/poll/697124/crime-seen-less-serious-second-straight-year.aspx",
      "calculation_notes": "Used for perceived-risk axis only. The 21% figure is the population-level share reporting frequent-or-occasional worry about sexual assault. Women are 34 percentage points more likely to worry than men (38% vs 4%). This is worry about assault specifically, not the broader harassment category.\n",
      "independence_note": "Gallup telephone survey, independent of both SSH/GfK and CDC NISVS. Measures worry, not prevalence.\n"
    }
  ],
  "comparison_anchors": [
    {
      "label": "Home burglary (lifetime, US household)",
      "lifetime_us_adult": 0.39
    },
    {
      "label": "Identity theft (lifetime, US adult)",
      "lifetime_us_adult": 0.6
    },
    {
      "label": "Being murdered (lifetime, US adult)",
      "lifetime_us_adult": 0.00348
    }
  ],
  "personal_factor_multipliers": [
    {
      "factor": "Women",
      "multiplier": 1.31,
      "notes": "81% lifetime prevalence for women vs 62% population average"
    },
    {
      "factor": "Men",
      "multiplier": 0.69,
      "notes": "43% lifetime prevalence for men vs 62% population average"
    },
    {
      "factor": "Women under 35",
      "multiplier": 1.4,
      "notes": "Younger women report higher rates across all subcategories in both SSH and NISVS data"
    },
    {
      "factor": "LGBTQ+ individuals",
      "multiplier": 1.5,
      "notes": "CDC NISVS consistently finds elevated sexual violence rates among sexual minority populations"
    }
  ],
  "short_label": "Sexual harassment (lifetime)",
  "myth_framing": "underrated",
  "outcome_severity": "moderate_harm",
  "exposure_pattern": "recurring",
  "outcome_type": "mental_trauma",
  "valence": "negative",
  "caveats": "This entry uses the broadest available definition of sexual harassment — verbal harassment, unwanted touching, cyber harassment, being followed, and assault combined. Narrower definitions (e.g., CDC NISVS workplace verbal harassment at 30% for women) yield substantially lower figures. The SSH survey was conducted online via GfK's probability-based panel, which may produce higher disclosure rates than telephone surveys due to reduced social desirability bias. The 81% figure for women is a lifetime cumulative prevalence, not an annual rate, and includes experiences ranging from a single instance of street catcalling to repeated assault. The gender disparity is among the largest on this site: women's lifetime prevalence is nearly double that of men. The population- weighted 62% figure is arithmetically correct but obscures the profoundly different lived experiences of women and men.\n",
  "quality_score": {
    "d1": 5,
    "d2": 5,
    "d3": 4,
    "d4": 4,
    "d5": 4,
    "d6": 5,
    "d7": 5,
    "d8": 5,
    "avg": 4.625,
    "scored_by": "claude-code-8d",
    "scored_at": "2026-05-25",
    "methodology_version": "1.2"
  },
  "reviewer": "quality-review-agent",
  "last_reviewed": "2026-04-19",
  "reviewed": true,
  "generated_at": "2026-04-18",
  "image": {
    "alt": "A pair of speech bubbles, one muted and one bright, on a plain background, flat vector illustration."
  },
  "attribution": "Likelier — https://likelier.app",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
  "support": "https://buymeacoffee.com/kgluszczyk?via=likelier&utm_content=api-fear-single",
  "canonical_url": "https://likelier.app/sexual-harassment-lifetime"
}