New research shows: Rape victims in Switzerland are on average 24 years old

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In Switzerland, significantly more sexual assaults take place on weekends than during the week. This is evident from a new study among victims treated in the emergency departments of the university hospitals of Geneva and Lausanne.

During the four-year research period between 2018 and 2021, 962 reports of sexual violence were made in the two hospitals, according to a joint statement from the hospitals on Wednesday. 740 cases were included in the analysis.

The average age of the victims was 24 years. Victims aged 14 years and older were examined; the oldest person included in the analysis was 93 years old.

The majority of victims know the perpetrators

45 percent of all reported attacks occurred on Saturday or Sunday. There were also more attacks in the summer: In the summer months the number of reported attacks was approximately one and a half times as high as in the rest of the year.

Nearly six in ten victims (58 percent) said they knew their attacker. The same number of attacks (56 percent) took place within the victims’ own four walls.

Of those who knew their attacker, more than half (53 percent) was a friend, colleague or acquaintance. Current (17 percent) and former (9 percent) intimate partners also represented a significant portion of known attackers. Family members and authority figures were mentioned less often as perpetrators in the population group older than 14 years old. About one in four people could not remember what type of penetration they had been exposed to.

Violence is used in almost 50 percent of crimes

According to the authors, this is a consequence of the consumption of alcohol or drugs, which is widespread in such situations among both perpetrators and victims. In the study, 63 percent of victims reported some form of substance use before the assault. According to the scientists, forgetting may also be due to the brain’s psychological protective mechanisms.

According to the study, about half of sexual assaults (48 percent) involved violence. Another 22 percent were unsure.

The study authors emphasized that there is insufficient data on sexual assault and rape in Switzerland. Such data can help design effective measures. Furthermore, data on sexual violence are critical to assessing the impact of potential prevention strategies to counter myths about rape and sexual assault. (SDA)

Source:Blick