Koss, Gidycz & Wi published a study in 1987 where they interviewed approximately 6,000 college students on 32 college campuses nationwide. They asked several questions covering a wide range of behaviors. From this study 15% of college women answered yes to questions about whether they experienced something that met the definition of rape. 12% of women answered yes to questions about whether they experienced something that met the definition of attempted rape[7]
In 1995 the CDC replicated part of this study. They examined rape only, and did not look at attempted rape. They found that 20% of approximately 5,000 women on 138 college campuses experienced rape during the course of their lifetime.[8]
In 2000, the National Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice statistics published a study called The Sexual Victimization of College Women based on a 1996 - 1997 survey. [6] At page 11, it can be seen that 3.1% of undergraduate women reported surviving rape or attempted rape during a 6-7 month academic year. Exhibit 7, page 18 of the report suggests that 10.1% of college women reported experiencing rape prior to entering college. 10.9% reported attempted rape prior to college.[9]