Overrepresented young people
Women continue to represent the majority of victims (82%) of sexual assault. But the Ministry’s data notes that young people aged 12 to 17 are clearly the most affected by the phenomenon. In 2021, no less than 2,682 young people filed complaints for such offences. This is twice as many as five years earlier, when fewer than 1,200 young people denounced such acts. The 12 to 14 year olds represent the most affected age group, with a rate of 1,032 victims per 100,000 people. They are also particularly at risk of being targeted by luring or the publication without their consent of intimate images.
The attackers, also young people
While “the vast majority of sex offenders” are adults, the Ministry maintains, it warns, however, that the rate of alleged perpetrators per 100,000 people is higher among young people. Among 12-17 year olds, there are about 273 alleged abusers per 100,000 people, while among adults, on average, this rate reaches 45.7. “The finding is the same, whether for sexual assault or for other sexual offences,” notes the Ministry in its report, specifying that the rate of alleged perpetrators is more than four times higher among young people. for sexual assaults and ten times higher for other sexual offences.
First in residences
Contrary to popular belief, sexual offenses are much less frequent on the street, in parks or even on public transport. No less than 70.9% of sexual offenses reported by Quebec police forces were rather “perpetrated in a residential residence”, according to data from the Ministry. Of these, nearly 37% of assaults and just over 50% of other sexual offenses take place in a single-family home. It must be said that the majority of offenders are known to their victim (81.7%). Educational institutions account for nearly 10% of sexual offenses recorded by the authorities, excluding assaults.
Less than seven days
We also note in the report that a large proportion of offenses of a sexual nature are reported to the police “less than seven days” after the events. Over an entire year, more than 70% of victims will have reported to the police. According to the Ministry, sexual assaults “tend to be reported in a slightly shorter time frame than other sexual offences, with sexual assaults having a median number of days of 30 days compared to 58 for other sexual offences.” ‘sexual order’. Conversely, incest offenses are often reported more than a year after the events, namely 58.1% of cases reported to the police in 2021.
On the North Shore, a marked phenomenon
It is the North Shore that has the highest rate of sexual assault in 2021, with 154.6 cases per 100,000 people. Abitibi-Témiscamingue comes second with 139.6 assaults in the same proportion. These are the same two regions “that have the highest rates of other sexual offences, ie 178.9 and 130.2 respectively,” maintains the government. Note: however, it was Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean that experienced the “most significant” increase in the rate of sexual offenses between 2020 and 2021, going from 128.7 to 197.5 per 100,000 inhabitants.