1.1. Girls are disproportionately exposed to sexual violence

Among the respondents to this survey, 13.0% of women and 5.5% of men reported that they had experienced sexual violence before age 18, including outside the family. Regardless of age or social background (defined here by the respondent’s father’s occupation when the respondent was 15 years old), women were more likely to report experiences of sexual violence before age 18 than men (Figure 1A).

The greater prevalence of reports of sexual violence before age 18 among younger cohorts of both women and men may reflect an increase in acts of violence over time and/or an increased tendency to report such acts over recent decades, as attention to the voices of victims has increased and the range of acts likely to be classified as violence has expanded [5]. This propensity for younger people to report more experiences of violence was not observed for violence committed by a family member. These results suggest that the growing recognition of violence since the early 1970s, driven by feminist movements and recently reinforced by the #MeToo movement, may have had less of an effect on victims’ articulation of intra-family sexual violence than other types of sexual violence. The lack of difference in this context between older and younger respondents may also be linked to a proportion of victims only recognizing later in life that the abuse had occurred.

The survey confirms the prevalence of sexual violence against minors regardless of social class. For example, 13.4% of women whose father was in a higher-level occupation when they were 15 years old reported having experienced such violence; the corresponding proportion among those whose father was a manual worker was 12.2% (5.8% and 5.1% for men).

Women and men whose father either did not have stable employment or was deceased or unknown were more likely to report sexual violence than others (Figure 1B). These results illustrate the important influence of the individual’s life context on their likelihood of experiencing sexual violence. Multiple hypotheses may account for this result. Fathers without stable employment, unable to fulfil their social role as resource providers, may experience this situation as a loss of authority and in some cases express it through violent behaviour. The absence of a father may also lessen the protection of some children and adolescents against abuse by other adults.

1.2. Sexual violence in and around the family is very widespread

The family is the social sphere where women report the most sexual violence. In total, 4.6% of the women surveyed and 1.2% of the men surveyed reported experiencing incestuous violence before the age of 18 (Online Appendix Table A.1¹). Such abuse is also often committed by family friends: 2.2% of women and 0.7% of men reported having been abused by someone close to the family. In combination, this means that 6.8% of women and 1.9% of men reported either intra-family or para-family violence. Other cases, which include a range of different types of situations, were reported by 6.1% of women and 3.7% of men. The most common are those committed by a partner/personal friend (2.7% and 0.8%), a stranger in a public place (1.7% and 0.9%), or a person working with children (0.7% and 1.3%). Among all respondents who reported experiences of sexual violence before they reached the age of 18, 35.7% of women indicated that the perpetrator was a family member versus 21.6% of men. In 96.5% of cases, the family member committing such abuse against a girl was a man; in cases where the victim was a boy, the figure is 89.7% (Online Appendix Table A.2). More specifically, 1 in 3 cases of intra-family violence against women (32.7%) was committed by their father or stepfather, followed by an uncle (17.9%), cousin (14.4%), or brother (14.1%). For men, the most common categories of abusers were a brother (21.8%), followed by a father or stepfather (20.7%), cousin (17.8%), or uncle (16.7%).

1.3. Sexual violence often begins at a very young age and is repeated over time

Nearly 40% of the sexual violence before age 18 reported in the survey happened before age 11 (Table 1). On average, those who reported having been sexually abused by a family member or family friend were younger at the time than other respondents: more than half of women who reported sexual abuse by a family member or family friend were younger than 11 when the first act of sexual violence occurred. Men’s responses showed the same tendencies.

Violence committed by a family member, and to a lesser extent by a family friend, is more often repeated over the course of multiple years compared to other situations, where it is more often a one-off event, particularly for women. Finally, among men who reported experiencing sexual violence, the abuse was more likely to be rape than among women. Rape is more common than sexual touching when the abuser is a family member or family friend.

1.4. Speaking about sexual abuse in childhood remains difficult

More than half of women (51.4%) and 39.0% of men who reported an experience of sexual violence indicated that they had spoken about it with someone else (Online Appendix Table A.3). The younger the respondent, the more likely they were to have spoken to someone about the abuse. This was the case of 59.6% of women and 52.2% of men aged 18–24 versus 42.4% of women and 25.0% of men over 60. Over the generations, then, confiding in others about experiences of abuse has become more common. Among those who reported that they had never spoken about it, some may have tried to do so [6] or to draw attention to a situation that they perceived as abnormal but have been unsuccessful in eliciting a response from those around them. These difficulties with speaking about sexual violence are doubtless greater in older generations, who were abused in a time that was less favourable to the articulation of these types of acts.

No significant differences were found in the likelihood of having spoken about sexual abuse committed by a man or a woman, or between victims who experienced an act of sexual violence for the first time at different ages (Online Appendix Table A.3). While women are more likely than men to have spoken about sexual touching (48.9% vs. 32.1%), for rape the likelihood is similar (55.1% and 46.7%). These results may partly be due to an effect of men’s socialization into the use of violence, which may make them less inclined to recognize touching as sexual assault and to speak to someone else about it.

The results also show that the longer the period of sexual violence, the more likely the victim is to have spoken about it. Multivariate analyses confirmed these results (Online Appendix Table A.3). The factors influencing the propensity to speak about sexual violence experienced in childhood and adolescence thus seem to be the generational/historical context of the abuse (as reflected by age at survey), the immediate context (notably the type of perpetrator for women, who were more likely to speak about abuse committed by a family member), and the duration of the period of abuse.

1.5. Sexual abuse is not often mentioned to anyone but close relations

Persons who experienced sexual abuse in childhood and went on to talk about it most often did so with someone close to them. Over a fifth of women (21.1%) and 12.9% of men spoke about it to their parents, respectively 17.5% and 12.5% to their partner, and 17.2% and 10.3% to a friend (Figure 2). Under 1 in 7 (13.8% of women and 11.7% of men) mentioned it to a healthcare professional. While women are generally more likely to speak about abuse than men, this is not the case when it comes to confiding in representatives of the police or the justice system, where the proportions for women and men are nearly identical (7.9% of women and 7.4% of men). This lack of a difference between the sexes may reflect women’s greater distrust of institutions that they often do not perceive as appropriately responsive to their reports and experiences.

Only 8.4% of women and 8.3% of men abused by a family member told both their parents and at least one healthcare, police, or legal professional. These results are consistent with the results of Dussy [6], showing that victims of incest are often discouraged from talking about it to people outside the family circle. They are thus widely prevented from seeking professional care, even though such care is essential given the consequences of this type of violence for the victims. These results show that while it is important to help individuals both speak about sexual abuse and listen to others speaking about it, facilitating victims’ access to persons outside their family circle is also important to improve access to care. Of particular importance is the role of educational professionals, given that schools are the only context of socialization shared by all children.