Volunteer Statistics:

• The number of non-profit organizations in the United States has grown to 1.4 million.
• In 2006, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime, 61 million people nationally volunteered through or for an organization, and the largest users of volunteers by percentage (35 percent) were religious organizations.
• Annual volunteer hours were the second highest at youth-oriented organizations, second only to religious groups.
• A new study finds that 27% of nonprofits don’t conduct any sort of background check when they take on a volunteer.
• Of 37,000 background checks performed through the PROTECT Act Child Safety Pilot testing, 6.1% of volunteers were found to have a criminal record of concern – including very serious offenses like sexual abuse of minors, assaults, murder and serious drug offenses.
• Over 40% of individuals with criminal records committed an offense in a state other than where they were applying to volunteer, meaning that a state-only search would not have found relevant criminal records.

Sexual Abuse Statistics:

• Every year an estimated 2.4 million children are physically abused.
• 90% of sexual assaults are committed against someone the perpetrator knows.
• There are 400,000 new sexual assault victims every year.
• There are over 550,000 registered sex offenders.
• Over 100,000 sex offenders have failed to register in the United States.
• From 20-30% of girls and 5-15% of boys will be sexually abused by the age of 18.
• The majority of child sexual abuse victims will be abused by family members or trusted friends. Only a small percentage is abused by strangers.