THE CHALLENGE
HARD FACTS
TERRIFYING FIGURES
According to the latest study by the National Institute of Demographic Studies entitled “Violence and Gender Relations”, conducted in 2015 on a representative sample of the population aged 20 to 69 years, one in seven women and one in 25 men report having suffered “at least one form of sexual violence” during their lifetime. Most often in childhood – the average age of sexually abused children is 8 years – with more than three-quarters of such violence being perpetrated within the family. Fewer than one in ten victims file a complaint.
Sexual violence against children is not a marginal phenomena but ubiquitous and a major concern for public health.
10%
10% of children, girls and boys combined, are victims of sexual violence before they reach maturity (WHO, 2009, chapter “Industrialised countries”)
20%
20% of children experience significant violence at some point in their lives as children (WHO 2010, Trocmé 2005)
154 000
154,000 children were raped or touched in 2015, i.e. 1 minor raped every 3 minutes (Insee)
8 Billion
The cost of sexual violence is estimated at 8 billion euros in France (Stop Sexual Violence, 2017)
2 Children
2 children die every day from abusive treatment in France every year (Inserm 2013)
81%
81% of victims of sexual abuse are minors (Mémoire Traumatique et Victimologie, with the support of UNICEF France 2014)
94 %
94% of rapes or attempted rapes are perpetrated by relatives (UNICEF, 2016)
4 616
4,616 websites put child pornography photos online in France (AFPI, 2016)
33
33 rapes are reported every day in France, i.e. 1 every 40 minutes !
4 Million
There are 4 million victims of incest in France (Université Paris Descartes, 2017)
1 in 5 Children
1 in 5 children have been sexually solicited on the Internet (DIF, 2007)
6th
France is 6th in the ranking of countries with the highest number of rapes (UN, 2010)
TRUE STORIES OF ABUSE
Photo taken & stories recorded by Chris Weiner
“My father penetrated me several times. Sometimes he would do it in front of his partner who touched herself while watching us”
André
abused and raped from age 6 to 15
“Everyday, and for no reason, my grandmother would hit me. With plates. With a radio. With anything she could find. And at night my grandfather would rape me. I was 8 years old.”
Solange
abandoned at 4, beaten from 5, abused at 8
“Years later, when I came to understand what had happened, I woke up one morning with the feeling that I was dead, that my body no longer belonged to me”
Danielle
abused from 5 to 11 years old
“He showed me his penis. I think he put it on my back. The next thing I remember was in front of him and I pulling up my trousers. Between the two I blacked out.”
Emilie
abused at 4
“I can’t go to the police. I haven’t the strength. I’m afraid nothing will come of it, that I won’t be believed”
Marie
raped around 8 years old
“The problems started when I was around 3. They lasted until I was 11, when my aggressor, my grandfather, died. But it wasn’t just him. At 8 he ‘rented’ me out to three of his friends.”
Odile
abused at 3, prostituted at 8
“My aggressor was behind me, I couldn’t see him, I couldn’t see anything. It was surreal. Because of this I have difficulty picturing the scene, finding words for what happened to me. Since then everything changed. One “cursed” Spring and 40 years of anguish. What happened was so inhuman.”
Sébastien
abused age 11