The shocking levels of violence and harassment experienced by girls and women in Britain has been laid bare by a groundbreaking survey.
Respondents had been subject to at least 37 sexual and physical crimes, including catcalling, harassment, punching, strangling, sexual coercion and rape on average in their lifetime.
And almost all – 99.7% of the 22,419 women asked – had been repeatedly subjected to them. Devastating numbers said they had experienced physical and sexual violence as children or teens.
Dr Jessica Taylor, the author of the survey by Victim Focus, said: “This is an urgent, systemic issue for half our population. This is something women and girls are being subjected to in lots of different forms.
“We need to re-look at this. Decision makers talk about these as rare crimes – well they are not actually, they are extremely common forms of crime and we should be talking about them as such.”
What is your view? Have your say in the comment section
Victim Focus advocates and lobbies for victims’ rights. It invited participants via social media, through universities and by MPs within their constituencies, pointing to a mixed uptake, not all with an interest in the issue.
Dr Taylor believes the statistics collected are so high because of the way questions were put to participants.
Rather than use general terms like domestic abuse, which many women do not consider themselves victims of, the survey asked specifically whether the women had, for example, been “shoved”, “punched”, “bitten”, or “thrown down a flight of stairs.”
She said: “I wasn’t shocked. Every woman you know has a story.
“When you create a method that doesn’t confuse people and is easy to complete, it’s easier for any victim of crime to understand. People can go ‘Oh, that did happen to me once, or twice’.”
The survey found while under 18, 82% were sexually harassed, 80% sexually touched, 30% forced into sex under the age of 13, and a third forced or coerced into penetrative sex.
Experiences over 18 were also shocking – 56% had experienced slapping or punching, 40% had had an item thrown at them and 36% had been threatened with death or seriously harmed.
Almost all – 95% – had been catcalled in public and a third had received sexually offensive or violent messages online.
The results are published in the wake of an outpouring of testimonies from women and girls about physical and sexual violence, and a flood of reports of harassment and violence within schools on the website Everyone’s Invited.
Dr Taylor said: “One of the things I hope it will help is the amount of women and girls who say ‘Was it my fault, did I deserve this?’
“Actually, it’s more likely you will be subjected to some kind of violence than you wouldn’t be.”
She added: “We want this very widely acknowledged and explored. We want engagement from universities, leaders in government, organisational leaders in police.
“And we need to discuss that we have always been creating policy and responses around the fact this is only a small proportion of the female population, and that has never been correct.”
The numbers
82% said when they were under 18 they were sexually harassed and 80% had been sexually touched without consent.
88% said as adults they had been sexually harassed and 87% sexually touched without consent.
95% had been catcalled in public and a third had received sexually offensive or violent messages online.
56% of those surveyed said they had experienced slapping or punching.
40% had an item thrown at them and a third had been threatened with death or harm.
