1 in 10 Youths Commit Acts of Sexual Violence

A recent study shows that sexual violence may be more prominent than health advocates previously thought-especially among young people. In fact, the results show that as many as one in 10 young people under the age of 22 have committed some type of coercive or forced sexual violence during their lifetime. 

Lead study author Michele L. Ybarra, M.P.H., Ph.d., of the Center of Innovative Public Health Research, San Clemente, California, and her team examined data for 1,058 young people between the ages of 14 and 21 years via the Growing Up with Media study.

The study showed that 9 percent of young people reported perpetrating some type of sexual violence and 8 percent of participants reported feeling forced during some type of sexual contact. Three percent also reported coercive sex, another 3 percent reported attempted rape and 2 percent completed rape.

Sixteen years old proved to be the most common age for the first act of sexual violence, according to the study, and boys were overwhelmingly more likely to have their first episode at an even younger period.

Those that reported previously committing sexual violence also tended to report more frequently being exposed to explicit sexual violence via the media.

Victims of perpetration often involved a romantic partner, and close to 50 percent of the perpetrators actually blamed the victim for sexual violence.

Some of the perpetrators even reported that none of the incidents they were involved in had been discovered.

"Certainly, however, links between perpetration and violent sexual media are apparent, suggesting a need to monitor adolescents' consumption of this material, particularly given today's media saturation among the adolescent population," researchers concluded. "Because victim blaming appears to be common while perpetrators experiencing consequences is not, there is urgent need for high school (and middle school) programs aimed at supporting bystander intervention."

The Rape Abuse & Incest National Network shows that 44 percent of sexual violence victims are under the age of 18 and 80 percent are under the age of 30. Further to the point, every two minutes in the United States alone, someone is sexually assaulted and the organization notes that over 90 percent of rapists will never see a day in jail as their crimes will not be brought to justice.

If you or someone you know has been hurt, tell someone. 

The findings are published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.