violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

“When I was like twelve, I thought I was pregnant by my father. I contemplated suicide becauseI was just saying to myself. “How am I going to explain this to people?”I mean, I was twelve years old. Nobody is going to believe me.”Young girl, North America, 2005 IV3with familial sexual violence against childrenfoster a pervasive culture of silence, where childrencannot speak about sexual abuse they havesuffered, adults do not speak about the risk ofsexual violence in the home, and where adultsdo not know what to do or say if they suspectsomeone they know is sexually abusing a child.Most children do not report the sexual violencethey experience at home because they areafraid of what will happen to them and theirfamilies, that their families will be ashamed orreject them, or that they will not be believed.Adults may also fail to report such abuse. Incommunities and families with rigid normsabout masculinity, femininity and familyhonour, boys who disclose sexual violence maybe viewed as weak and unmanly, and girlswho disclose sexual violence risk being blamed– and frequently beaten and killed. 50,51 Bothboys and girls are vulnerable to sexual violence,but comparison of international studies revealsthat rates of sexual violence against girls aregenerally higher than those against boys. 52,53A recent WHO multi-country study interviewedmore than 24,000 women in 10 countries(Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Peru,Namibia, Samoa, the former Serbia and Montenegro,Thailand, and the United Republic ofTanzania), and asked if someone had touchedthem sexually or made them do somethingsexual they did not want to do, before the ageof 15 years. 54 In some of these countries, theproportion of childhood sexual abuse perpetratedby family members is extremely high:• In the two Brazil sites, city and province,12% and 9% respectively of the womenreported childhood sexual abuse. Ofthese, 66% and 54% reported that afamily member was the perpetrator.• In Namibia, 21% of the womenreported childhood sexual abuse. Ofthese, 47% indicated that a familymember was the perpetrator.• In the two Peruvian sites, city andprovince, 19.5% and 18% of thewomen reported childhood sexualabuse, with 54% and 41% of theperpetrators being family members.The most commonly reported perpetrators ofsexual violence towards girls were male familymembers (brothers, uncles), followed by stepfathers,fathers and female family members.Male friends of family were also commonlynamed as perpetrators. Other research confirmsthat parents, caregivers, aunts and uncles,siblings, grandparents, cousins, and friends ofthe family perpetrate sexual violence againstchildren. For example:• In a study of women aged 15 to 49in South Africa, 21% of women whoreported being forced or persuaded tohave intercourse against their will priorto the age of 15 years, reported that theperpetrator was a relative. 55• In a Romanian national study of 13-and 14-year-olds, 9% of the childrenreported they had been sexually violatedin the family and 1% reported they hadbeen raped by a family member. 56• In the Occupied Palestinian Territory,19% of surveyed undergraduate collegestudents reported at least one act ofsexual violence against them by an55Violence against children in the home and family