More than half of all New Mexicans have been sexually assaulted or raped at some point in their life, and 40% have been the victim of some kind of sexual violence while in New Mexico in the past year, according to a report published Wednesday.

Researchers from the Catherine Cutler Institute at the University of Southern Maine set out to understand how often people in New Mexico become victims of sexual violence, how often they report it and how often they seek help.

They surveyed 1,272 people between September 2023 and June 2024, and 54% of the people who responded said they had either been raped or sexually assaulted within their lifetime. “This rate translates to more than 1.1 million New Mexico residents,” the authors wrote.

The findings mark the first new New Mexico sexual violence crime victimization survey data in nearly two decades, the authors wrote. The last one was conducted between 2005 and 2006.

Researchers collected the data for the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, a nonprofit that provides technical assistance to more than 60 sexual assault service providers, sexual assault nurse examiners, child advocacy centers and community mental health centers.

In an interview with Source, Alexandria Taylor, the coalition’s executive director, said she thinks a lack of funding is the primary explanation for why it’s been so long since the last survey.

Taylor said the findings validate and quantify what she has known anecdotally for years: sexual assault is present in many people’s lives.

“All of our service providers, whether it’s our substance use treatment centers, our schools, our places of employment — even our places of incarceration — they’re all serving survivors of sexual assault,” she said.

Rachel Cox, the coalition’s deputy director of programs, told Source she was surprised the report gave her some hope they can actually address the prevalence of sexual assault, because it shows neither victims nor perpetrators of sexual violence are exceptional.

“We’re really talking about something that vicariously impacts everyone in New Mexico,” she said.

While counts of sexual violence victims commonly derived from service organizations and police reports are informative, they are also “certainly undercounts,” the report states.

Researchers asked New Mexicans about their experiences with four kinds of sexual violence: stalking, rape, sexual assault and domestic violence. Forty percent said they had been the victim of at least one of these crimes within the last 12 months while they were in New Mexico.

The research was funded by the Crime Victims Reparation Commission, a state agency that helps crime victims recover losses resulting from being victimized, and provides federal grants to other organizations serving them.

In a news release attached to the report, the coalition outlined its priorities for the upcoming legislative session to boost support for survivors and evidence-based prevention education.

The group plans to ask the Legislature to set aside $3 million to the Department of Health for prevention initiatives, $2 million to the Health Care Authority for medical and counseling needs, and $2 million to the Crime Victims Reparation Commission for providers and the New Mexico Sexual Assault Helpline.

The report also noted that 68% of victims of sexual assault and 75% of victims of rape did not seek support.

State law prohibits reparations to people victimized in prison

As researchers conducted the survey, they also sought to find disparities between demographic groups.

For example, people who have been incarcerated have the highest overall rate of victimization: 69%. They were also more likely to have been the victim of stalking than any other group.

Formerly incarcerated New Mexicans were also less likely to seek victim services, and more likely to have experienced “significant problems” with their job or schoolwork as a result of being victimized, the researchers found. 

The group with the next highest rate of victimization was homeless people, at 68%.

Taylor said people who are most systemically impacted either have experienced sexual violence or are at greater risk of experiencing it. Cox said incarcerated and unhoused people can be some of the most invisible in society.

The findings are notable, in part, because New Mexico law does not allow reparations to people who were victimized while they were incarcerated. Taylor said it can’t be ignored that people who do harm and end up incarcerated have also themselves experienced harm and need healing.

“That’s where we have to use what we know from the individual level to impact things at the policy level,” she said.

Transgender or nonbinary people were more likely than cisgender people to have been raped, and Black respondents were more likely than other races to have been raped.

Perpetrators of rape were most commonly identified as casual acquaintances of the victims, at 34%; followed by a former partner or spouse, 30%; a current partner or spouse, 23%, and finally a stranger, 22%.

A proposal to create a fundamental right to a clean environment on par with other rights found in New Mexico’s constitution will return to the Legislature in the coming days.

The sponsors will prefile the legislation this week, Sen. Harold Pope (D-Albuquerque), said during a news conference Tuesday with other sponsors and advocates. Lawmakers have already turned in bills dealing with tribal education, retired public sector workers’ health care and foster care in advance of the session starting Jan. 21.

If passed and signed into law, the legislation would create a ballot question asking voters whether to add a Green Amendment to the New Mexico Constitution.

Traditional environmental laws often fail to prevent harm because they focus on regulating how much damage pollution does, rather than preventing it altogether, argues Maya van Rossum, founder of the nonprofit Green Amendments for the Generations.

Three states have constitutional Green Amendments that protect people’s right to clean water and air, a safe climate and a healthy environment, van Rossum said during the news conference: Pennsylvania, Montana and New Jersey.

Similar amendments have been proposed in 19 other states, she said, with an ongoing ballot initiative in one state.

If the amendment passes, New Mexico would be the first state in the country to explicitly recognize in its state constitutional Bill of Rights the right of all people, including future generations, to a safe climate, she said.

It would also be the first to lift up critical environmental justice protections to that highest constitutional level, she said.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration has passed strong regulations to protect the environment, said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo López (D-Albuquerque), but she is worried about how the federal government could try to roll back those gains.

The Green Amendment is a way to protect New Mexico from the excesses of the incoming Donald Trump administration, she said.

It will be the fifth time the Green Amendment has been debated at the Roundhouse. The proposal has been introduced every year since 2021.

Previous versions of the bill would have repealed an existing part of the state constitution that recognizes that the Legislature has a duty to protect commonly owned natural resources and ensure the public can use them. This year’s version keeps that in place, van Rossum said.

It took 10 years of persistent advocacy and some changes in who had power at the Roundhouse to end the death penalty, Sedillo López said.

“We have some changes in the Legislature, and we have a growing number of advocates who continue to provide sustained advocacy,” she said of the efforts around the Green Amendment. “And, we have persistent legislators. We will get this done.”

It also took five years of legislative debate to create New Mexico’s community solar program, Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) noted.

Roybal Caballero said so long as New Mexico lacks necessary guardrails like the Green Amendment, the state’s inhabitants remain at risk of declining children’s health, raging wildfires and flash floods.

“Our right to clean air, water, soil and environment should be protected above profits for the elite,” Roybal Caballero said. “Let New Mexicans decide if we prefer drinkable water for ourselves and future generations, or to continue to line the pocketbooks of the elite few.”