FINDINGS.

SEC. 301. FINDINGS. Congress finds the following: (1) Youth, under the age of 18, account for 67 percent of all sexual assault victimizations reported to law enforcement officials. (2) The Department of Justice consistently finds that young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rate of non-fatal intimate partner violence. (3) In 1 year, over 4,000 incidents of rape or sexual assault occurred in public schools across the country. (4) Young people experience particular obstacles to seeking help. They often do not have access to money, transportation, or shelter services. They must overcome issues such as distrust of adults, lack of knowledge about available resources, or pressure from peers and parents. (5) A needs assessment on teen relationship abuse for the State of California, funded by the California Department of Health Services, identified a desire for confidentiality and confusion about the law as 2 of the most significant barriers to young victims of domestic and dating violence seeking help. (6) Only one State specifically allows for minors to petition the court for protection orders. (7) Many youth are involved in dating relationships, and these relationships can include the same kind of domestic violence and dating violence seen in the adult population. In fact, more than 40 percent of all incidents of domestic violence involve people who are not married. (8) 40 percent of girls ages 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend, and 13 percent of college women report being stalked. (9) Of college women who said they had been the victims of rape or attempted rape, 12.8 percent of completed rapes, 35 percent of attempted rapes, and 22.9 percent of threatened rapes took place on a date. Almost 60 percent of the completed rapes that occurred on campus took place in the victim’s residence. (10) According to a 3-year study of student-athletes at 10 Division I universities, male athletes made up only 3.3 percent of the general male university population, but they accounted for 19 percent of the students reported for sexual assault and 35 percent of domestic violence perpetrators. 119 STAT. 3004