The Bare Facts - Violence

Statistics on violence against women: the global picture
Sexual and gender based violence against women paints a disturbing picture, up to one-third of adolescent girls report forced sexual initiation.

For example, a recent study suggests that in the United Kingdom:

- one in three teenage girls has suffered sexual abuse from a boyfriend,
- one in four has experienced violence in a relationship,
- one in six has been pressured into sexual intercourse,
- one in sixteen said they had been raped.
- Mass rape of women and girls continues to be seen as somehow a legitimate military weapon.

Reports suggest that, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a war that lasted a mere three years, somewhere between 10,000 and 60,000 women and girls were raped.
Sexual violence against men and boys continues undaunted, unreported, understudied, and too often a source of ridicule and derision.

According to a number of studies, somewhere between 5 and 10% of adult males report having been sexually abused in their childhood.

Women suffer violence in health care settings, “including sexual harassment, genital mutilation, forced gynecological procedures, threatened or forced abortions, and inspections of virginity.”

Sexual violence in schools abounds almost in every country in the world, in Canada, 23% of girls experience sexual harassment.

There was a 25% rise in rape and sexual assaults between 2005 and 2007, among all violent crimes, domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault showed the largest increase.


Adapted from www.cabsa.org.za
Author: Pieter Visser, accessed 25th November 2009