The Guardian ·
New report reveals prevalence of physical and sexual violence in US
Study finds more than half of US adults have experienced physical violence and nearly half sexual violence
In their lifetime, more than half of US adults have experienced physical violence – and nearly half have experienced sexual violence, according to a startling new national study.
The study, led by researchers from Tulane University’s Newcomb Institute and the University of California, San Diego, examined experiences of physical, sexual and intimate partner violence, along with how they intersect with behavioral health, economic hardship, neighborhood safety and substance use, among other factors.
The study found that 52% of US adults have experienced physical violence during their lifetime, including cases involving a gun or knife. The rate was the same among women and men: 52% each.
Speaking to the Guardian, Anita Raj, executive director of the Newcomb Institute and co-author of the study report, said the survey pointed to the importance of assessing violence beyond crime reports.
“That’s a fraction of people who are affected,” said Raj, whose study is titled Violence in America: Findings from the 2025 United States Violence Experiences Survey (USVEX). “We also don’t want to find out about it at that point because if we’re finding out at that point, the risk for fatality has now gone up.”
USVEX surveyed 2,720 adults across all 50 states between October and December 2025 using a nationally representative sample administered by NORC at the University of Chicago.
The study was conducted in English and Spanish, with its finding arrives months after the Trace – a non-profit newsroom dedicated to reporting on gun violence – calculated that the Trump administration had terminated, redirected or delayed more than $1bn in federal grants related to gun violence, public safety, mental health and other efforts to save lives.
In the past year, one in 20 American adults (5%) experienced physical violence – and 3% reported physical abuse that did not involve a weapon, the study found.
Women most often experienced physical violence at the hands of a spouse or romantic partner, at 61%, while men most commonly experienced violence from a stranger, at 38%. Among men, 25% reported violence by a spouse or romantic partner and 24% by a family member, according to the study.
It also found both women and men most often reported experiencing physical violence at home, at 69% and 34%, respectively. Men also reported experiencing violence in public spaces at a rate of 30%.
Physical violence was also associated with significant mental health consequences.
Among those who experienced physical violence in the past year, 48% of women and 26% of men said the experience resulted in anxiety or depression. Only a minority of those affected filed formal complaints, including 10% of women and 17% of men.
The study also found that 49% of US adults have experienced sexual violence during their lifetime, with a significantly higher prevalence among women, at 68%, than men, at 29%.
In the past year, 7% of Americans – about one in 14 – experienced sexual violence, the survey found. The rate was 9% among women and 4% among men. The study noted that sexual harassment accounted for much of this violence.
Strangers were the most commonly reported perpetrators of sexual violence in the past year, accounting for 58% of cases involving women and 66% of cases involving men. Acquaintances or community members were the next most commonly reported perpetrators, at 47% for women and 41% for men, according to the study.
The locations also differed by gender. Most women who experienced sexual violence in the past year said it occurred in public spaces, at 55%, while 64% of men said it occurred at home, the study said.
Additionally, 42% of women who faced sexual violence in the past year reported suffering from depression or anxiety, while 39% of men said the violence they experienced resulted in anxiety or depression. The study also found that 4% of women and 10% of men who experienced sexual violence during the past year considered suicide.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) was also widespread, with 61% of women and 45% of men reporting that they had experienced it. Nearly one in five women, or 19%, reported potentially lethal IPV, including beating, burning, strangulation or violence involving a knife or gun – compared with 3% of men.
The study found that experiences of violence rose sharply during adolescence and young adulthood, with rates increasing during adolescence and continuing to climb into young adulthood. By this stage, nearly one-third of adults reported having experienced sexual violence.
Economic hardship was also closely linked to experiences of violence. Adults who had been evicted in the previous year were seven times more likely to report recent physical violence, three times more likely to report sexual violence and nearly five times more likely to report intimate partner violence, the study noted.
Raj on Tuesday pointed to factors such as economic status as an important metric, saying: “What we really see are what we call economic shocks that increase their very acute vulnerability. So [those are] things like not having enough money to meet basic needs like food … an eviction, or having been homeless in the past year.
“At the same time, we also see the early experiences of violence. … When you’ve had those experiences early in life, you are more vulnerable to them throughout your life, and so that’s really a piece of this.
“It shouldn’t take a fatality for you to understand risk for fatality. By assessing behaviors that women have experienced that could have killed them, you have a better understanding of how much risk for fatality from domestic violence there actually is.”
Echoing Raj, Jakana Thomas, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego, and co-author of the study, said: “These findings show that violence prevention cannot occur in isolation. It must be part of a broader strategy that also addresses economic hardship, mental health and other forms of social inequality associated with violence.”
Raj and Thomas’s study arrived three days after a woman, her daughter, her son and his girlfriend were killed in a stabbing spree at a home in Houma, Louisiana, about 60 miles south-west of the Newcombe Institute. The man whom authorities arrested in connection with the deadly attack – which also wounded a six-year-old minor – had reportedly fathered a child with one of the victims.
Those killings occurred two years after Louisiana’s department of health warned that intimate partner violence was a “significant public health concern in the state”. The state’s rate of women murdered by men has historically been significantly higher than the national average, according to the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
A statement from Tulane said the new study grew out of work focused on Louisiana that Raj and her colleagues had done before then seeing many of the same patterns emerge nationally.