The month of April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the Knoxville Police Department encourages the community to be educated on the topic.

According to the police department, one in three female victims of sexual assault faced it for the first time between the ages of 11 and 17.  Additionally,  approximately one in five women have experienced it in their lives, with 43.9% of women dealing with some form of sexual assault. Knoxville Police Chief Aaron Fuller says this is often a crime that is hard to prevent as it happens behind closed doors, but adds that it is crucial that parents are educating their kids on the topic. Fuller also says that these crimes often can go unreported. 

“We do take it very seriously. Sexual assault is a crime that is often not reported to the police for a lot of reasons. Some reasons are understandable, others are not but we do urge people if they feel they have been assaulted sexually to come to the police department to report that.”

Hear more from Fuller on an upcoming Let’s Talk Knoxville.