A study by the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) focuses on sexual violence suffered during childhood and adolescence. The survey confirms in particular that all social backgrounds are concerned.
In an unprecedented INED survey published on Wednesday and which franceinfo was able to consult, the National Institute for Demographic Studies reveals that in terms of sexual violence, women are the first victims. They are “overexposed to sexual violence during childhood and adolescence”.
According to this survey, “sexual violence, including non-domestic violence” before 18 years old, “concern 13% of women and 5.5% of men”. This study confirms that sexual violence affects all social backgrounds. So “women whose father is a senior executive are 13.4% to report such violence”, at the age of 15. They are 12.2% when the father is a worker against respectively 5.8% and 5.1% for male victims of sexual violence. These sexual assaults “massively take place in the family circle”indicates INED.
Assaults mostly committed by a family member
Of those who reported such abuse before the age of 18, “35.7% of women indicate that it was a member of their family against 21.6% of men”. In nearly 97% of cases, these sexual assaults committed by a family member, against a girl, were committed by men. This figure is 89.7% when the victim is a young boy.
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“More than half of women were under 11 when the first sexual assault occurred when the perpetrator was a family member or friend”, according to the testimonies collected as part of this investigation. These aggressions are mainly committed by the father or the stepfather when it comes to young girls and by the brothers when it comes to young boys.
The difficulty of speaking
The investigation shows that it is “a word that remains difficult” to be issued for the victims, but we observe a higher frequency of declarations among the younger generations. “This is the case for 59.6% of women and 52.2% of men aged 18 to 24 against 42.4% of women and 25% of men over 60”. And when the victims speak, it is most often to their loved ones that they confide.
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The study shows that “the propensity to talk about it is always higher among women than among men”. According to this survey it is “It is essential to promote both speaking and listening, but also to ensure that the youngest have easy access to people other than those in their family circle in order to improve the care of the people concerned”. If women confide more easily, they are less confident when it comes to confiding in representatives of the police or justice. They are wary of institutions perceived as not listening to their word.
Methodology : This unprecedented study unveiled by INED is based on data from the Inserm survey carried out in 2021 on sexual violence at the request of Ciase (Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (survey conducted from November 25, 2020 to January 28, 2021. 28,011 questionnaires were taken into account.