UNICEF says that one in eight girls and women are raped or sexually abused before they turn 18
The UN’s children’s office said on Wednesday that more than 370 million girls and women, or one in eight women in the world, have been raped or sexually assaulted before they turn 18.
When “non-contact” forms of sexual violence like online or verbal abuse are added in, the number goes up to 650 million, or one in five. This was found by UNICEF in what it called the first worldwide survey of the problem.
Girls and women were the most affected by the study opens in new tab. It also said that between 240 and 310 million boys and men, or about 1 in 11, have been raped or sexually assaulted as children.
“The scale of this human rights violation is overwhelming, and it’s been hard to fully grasp because of stigma, challenges in measurement, and limited investment in data collection,” UNICEF said in its study.
It comes before the first Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, which will take place next month in Colombia.
UNICEF said that its results show that the world needs to move faster and more strongly, for example by making laws stronger and teaching kids how to spot and report sexual violence.
UNICEF said that sexual violence happens everywhere, in all cultures and income levels. However, 79 million girls and women, or 22% of all victims, are in Sub-Saharan Africa. East and South-Eastern Asia come in second with 75 million, or 8%.
UNICEF found that 73.2 million women and girls (9%) were affected in Central and Southern Asia, 68 million in Europe and North America (14%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (18%). Finally, 29 million women and girls (15%) were affected in Northern Africa and Western Asia.
With 6 million people affected, Oceania had the most people touched by 34%.
The risks were higher, going up to 1 in 4, in “fragile settings,” such as places with weak institutions, a lot of refugees, or U.N. peacekeeping troops.
Catherine Russell, the head of UNICEF, said that sexual abuse against children was “a stain on our moral conscience.”
“It inflicts deep and lasting trauma, often by someone the child knows and trusts, in places where they should feel safe.”
UNICEF said that most sexual violence against children happens during youth, especially between the ages of 14 and 17. Children who experience this have a higher chance of getting STDs, abusing drugs, and having mental health problems.
“(T)he impact is further compounded when children delay disclosing their experiences … or keep the abuse secret altogether,” UNICEF noted.
It said that more money needed to be spent on collecting data to get a full picture of the problem because there were still gaps in the data, especially when it came to boys’ stories.
UNICEF said that its estimates of what girls and women go through are based on polls that were taken in 120 countries and areas between 2010 and 2022 and were representative of the whole country. It said that figures for boys and men came from a wider range of data sources and used some indirect methods.
