Before Antoine Dodson was on Oprah and had a song on iTunes, he was simply a man worried about his sister. One night, Antoine woke to the sound of his sister screaming for help. Upon further investigation, he discovered that a rapist had entered his apartment (“Antoine Dodson warns a thug”). Unfortunately, Antoine Dodson's story is not entirely uncommon in the United States. Every two minutes, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted (“Rape Abuse and Incest National Network”). In 2006, there were over 260,000 victims of sex-related crimes, and this figure is continually increasing (“Statistics Table” 97). In 1990, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported that 75% of women and 33% of men will experience some sort of hate crime in their lifetime (Violence Against Women 222). The U.S. Department of Justice's sex offender registry includes the names and residences of nearly 550,000 sex offenders. Chances are you have come into contact with one of them (Liautaud). Not only are there thousands of reported victims, but sixty percent of rapes are not even reported to the police and fifteen out of sixteen rapists will never spend a day in prison (“Rape Abuse and Incest National Network”). Physical damage from rape often occurs in the form of bruises and cuts on the part of the attacker, as well as through sexually transmitted diseases. The mental damage, however, is normally more substantial. Victims often blame themselves for what happened (“James R. Snell Jr.”). On average, a sex offender spends between five and eleven years in prison. Once released from prison, a sex offender is ten times more likely to commit another sexual crime than someone who has committed another... middle of paper... cal Association (APA). Network. November 08, 2011.Jones, Maggie. “How can you distinguish a budding pedophile from a kid with RealBoundary problems?”. New York Times. July 22, 2007. Web. October 26, 2011. Goodnough, Abby, and Monica Davey. “Efforts to track down sex offenders attract resistance.” New York Times February 8, 2009. Web. November 8, 2011. Liautaud, Marian V. “Sex Offenders in the Pew.” Christianity today. (2010): Mas Ultra-School Edition. EBSCO. Network. 19 October 2011. "Crimes against property". James R. Snell Jr., Scorpion Design, November 28, 2010. Web. November 13, 2011. “Treatment of Sex Offenders in Prison.” Washington State Department of Corrections website. Network. November 13, 2011."Statistics." National Rape, Abuse and Incest Network. Network. November 13, 2011. United States. Statistics table. BJS, 2006. Web. 8 November 2011. Violence against women. San Diego, California. Greenhaven Press, Inc. 1994. Print.