What federal data sources report sexual assault rates for Native American women through 2024–2025?

1. FBI special reports and UCR/NIBRS: official incident counts and victim/offender details

The Federal Bureau of Investigation published a specialized analysis titled “Violence Against American Indian or Alaska Native Females, 2021–2023,” drawing on the National Incident‑Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data and released on the FBI Crime Data Explorer in January 2025; that report explicitly covers rape, sexual assault with an object, sodomy, and fondling and gives incident‑level details such as victim ages, offender relationships, and locations ^{[1] [4]}. The FBI product is the clearest recent federal source for multi‑year incident reporting that specifically isolates AI/AN female victims through 2023 and was published in early 2025 for public use ^[1].

2. CDC and national surveys: prevalence estimates and public‑health framing

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) and related CDC analyses are frequently cited in federal and advocacy reporting to show lifetime and past‑year prevalence for AI/AN women; reporting that AI/AN women are roughly 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault or that over 4 in 5 have experienced violence in their lifetime stems from CDC/NIJ‑based analyses like Rosay ^[5] and later CDC syntheses cited in 2024–2025 coverage ^{[2] [6]}. These survey‑based sources produce prevalence percentages (e.g., figures such as ~34% lifetime rape or 56% lifetime sexual violence appear across federal and nonprofit summaries), but they are estimates based on survey samples rather than administrative crime counts ^{[6] [3] [7]}.

3. Department of Justice and NIJ: research syntheses and historical analyses

The Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice have produced reports over time that are the basis for many widely quoted statistics about AI/AN sexual victimization; NIJ reporting (e.g., Rosay 2016 and related NIJ summaries) has been cited by federal and nonprofit outlets to document high lifetime prevalence and complex prosecution gaps in Indian Country ^{[6] [8]}. These DOJ/NIJ products explain jurisdictional limits, prosecution declines, and under‑reporting that complicate interpreting both survey prevalences and administrative counts ^{[6] [8]}.

4. Indian Health Service and tribal health data: service encounters and awareness metrics

The Indian Health Service (IHS) public communications and tribal health organizations report programmatic metrics and prevalence estimates—e.g., IHS blog posts and funding announcements cite survey figures (such as 56.1% lifetime sexual violence) and describe forensic‑health capacity expansions in 2024 ^[7]. These are important for understanding where survivors seek care and for tracking access to forensic exams, but they do not replace nationally comparable incidence datasets ^[7].

5. Non‑federal compilations and advocacy figures: high prevalence framing, often derived from federal studies

Major advocacy and journalism pieces (Amnesty, High Country News, Urban Indian Health Institute, and others) repeatedly cite federal studies and surveys to state that AI/AN women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault or that ~1 in 3–1 in 2 have experienced sexual violence; these sources synthesize federal numbers but sometimes present different single‑number summaries (e.g., 34.1%, 56.1%, or “over 4 in 5” for any violence), reflecting different measures (rape vs. any sexual violence vs. any violence) and years of underlying surveys ^{[2] [8] [9] [3]}. Readers should note these variations come from different survey questions, populations, and years ^{[3] [2]}.

6. What’s missing and why counts diverge: jurisdiction, under‑reporting, and data gaps

Federal reporting and researchers consistently flag that AI/AN sexual‑assault data are fragmented because of jurisdictional complexity, under‑reporting, and limited access to services—factors that depress official counts and complicate trend interpretation; DOJ and advocacy reporting document declined prosecutions and jurisdictional gaps that produce undercounts in federal administrative data ^{[6] [8]}. Available sources do not identify a single federal dataset that provides finalized, nationwide 2024 incidence figures specifically for AI/AN sexual assault beyond the FBI’s 2021–2023 NIBRS special report and the ongoing CDC/survey‑based prevalence work ^[1].

7. How to use these sources responsibly: match the measure to your question

If you need incident counts reported to law enforcement, the FBI NIBRS/CDE special report (2021–2023) is the primary federal administrative source through early 2025 ^[1]. If you need lifetime or prevalence estimates for public‑health planning, rely on CDC/NISVS and NIJ syntheses (Rosay 2016 and later analyses cited in 2024–2025 reporting), but be explicit about whether you mean “lifetime rape,” “lifetime sexual violence,” or “any violence” because cited percentages differ by definition ^{[6] [2] [3]}.

Summary of federally sourced entry points you can cite now: FBI Crime Data Explorer/NIBRS special report (Violence Against AI/AN Females, 2021–2023) for incident data ^[1]; CDC/NISVS and NIJ analyses for prevalence estimates cited across federal and advocacy reports ^{[6] [2]}. Available sources do not mention a single consolidated federal annual dataset that reports 2024 calendar‑year AI/AN sexual assault incidence beyond these products ^{[1] [2]}.