More than 370 million women and girls around the world (one in eight) have been raped or sexually assaulted when they were minors, according to a UNICEF study published this Thursday on the occasion of the International Day of the girl. If we count forms of sexual violence that do not include direct contact, 650 million women and girls have been victims of verbal or online violence (one in five), indicates the organization.
According to the study, Most sexual violence against children occurs during adolescencewith a significant peak between 14 and 17 years old. Unicef notes that Carrying out “specific interventions” during this vital stage is “crucial” stop abuse and mitigate its long-term effects, which often extend into adulthood and lead to an increased risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases or falling into drug addiction.
These abuses also generate social isolation, mental health problems such as anxiety and depression in victims or difficulty establishing healthy relationships, consequences that are worsened when children delay telling their experiences or keep them secret. Additionally, minors who experience this type of violence are more likely to experience more abuse in the future, the study says.
Executive director Catherine Russell stresses that children in fragile environments “are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence”, and is concerned about the existence of “appalling” sexual violence in conflict zones, “where rape and gender-based sexual violence are often used as weapons of war.
By region, the countries most affected by sexual violence are sub-Saharan Africa (79 million girls and women victims, or 22%), East and Southeast Asia (75 million, 8%) and Central and Southern Asia (73 million, 9%). Europe and North America follow (68 million, 14%), Latin America and the Caribbean (45 million, 18%), North Africa and Western Asia (29 million, 15%) and Oceania (6 million, 34% ).
On the other hand, the organization emphasizes that children and men also suffer this abuse, even if it is not as well documented as that of women. Thus, we calculate that between 240 and 310 million boys and men (one in eleven) were victims of rape or sexual assault during their childhoodand if non-contact forms of violence are included, this figure rises to between 410 and 530 million men and boys.
Given the scarcity of studies on the incidence of sexual violence in this sector of the population, Unicef calls for greater investment in data collection to “capture the full extent of sexual violence” against them.
