*** This media release contains information about family, domestic or sexual violence. If you need help immediately call emergency services on 111. If you or anyone you know needs help, support is available now. ***
Over a quarter of Kiwi women, and one in five men, are estimated to experience sexual violence before age 18 according to new international research.
New Zealand’s stats are above the global averages outlined in a new report published in The Lancet.
The SMC asked experts to comment.
Professor Janet Fanslow, Social and Community Health, University of Auckland, comments:
“This study highlights the persistent and urgent problem of child sexual abuse. While international comparisons are always challenging given variations in data collection, the findings reported in this article are consistent with high quality surveys from Aotearoa New Zealand. Findings support NZ work going back as far as the 1990s, indicating that approximately 1 in 4 girls, and approximately 1 in 10 boys experience child sexual abuse.
“Child sexual abuse has a serious and significant impact on those who experience it. However, there are also ripple effects. Child sexual abuse damages families and communities. Recent evidence from the Royal Inquiry into Abuse in State Care has shown the long-term impact of child sexual abuse.
“What matters now is what we do next.
“Information such as that presented in this study should not be allowed to sit on a shelf somewhere. We need to use it as a catalyst for investment. We need to take a strategic approach to addressing all types of family and sexual violence. It is no longer sufficient to take a piecemeal approach hoping that individual parts of the system will eventually join up.
“Such an approach will require building a prevention infrastructure and engaging communities.
While such an approach might sound costly, we need to recognize that we are already paying for these persistent problems. We are paying with poor educational outcomes, costly health services, and overloaded criminal justice systems. Investing in evidence-based prevention is a longer-term approach to building an economically productive, healthier society. It will also help us tackle the reprehensible problem of child sexual abuse that we have swept under the carpet for too long.”
Conflicts of interest statement: None declared.
Dr Rachel Roskvist, Senior Lecturer (Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland), GP, and Forensic Medical Examiner, comments:
“This study disappointingly shows that sexual violence against children remains a significant and widespread public health issue with little change in global prevalence over the last 30 years. The personal and societal burden of SVAC is substantial with well-established associations with adverse outcomes in multiple life domains.
“Worryingly this study finds that prevalence of sexual violence against children among Aotearoa New Zealand women remains high but also reports high prevalence in men. What is not seen in this work is the prevalence among transgender, gender fluid, non-binary or intersex individuals, groups known to be at risk for sexual violence.
“Comprehensive relationship and sexuality education is an important aspect of prevention, and it is vital New Zealand looks to the best available evidence to support development of guidance following the removal of the 2020 guidelines. The study identified a substantial increase in experiences of sexual violence from age 12 -18, underscoring the importance of comprehensive education for this age group.
“It is clear from this research there remains much work required globally and in New Zealand in efforts to prevent sexual violence against children, and the need for safe and effective support for those who have experienced it. With such a high prevalence in New Zealand and given the long-term impact on survivors it is critical that addressing sexual violence against children is a high priority.”
Conflict of interest statement: “I have remunerated roles as a Forensic Medical Examiner for people who experience sexual violence and I act as an Expert Witness in sexual violence court cases. I am a Board Director for Medical Sexual Assault Clinicians (MEDSAC) Aotearoa and I am involved in the teaching/ training of clinicians working in sexual assault medicine in Aotearoa.”
Our colleagues at the Australian Science Media Centre also gathered expert comments:
Dr Jacqui Hendriks, Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow in the Curtin School of Population Health at Curtin University, comments:
“This landmark study offers a powerful and sobering picture of sexual violence against children, both globally and in Australia. It estimates that 27.8% of females and 16.9% of males in Australia have experienced sexual violence before the age of 18 — among the highest prevalence rates in the world. While there are methodological challenges in making direct international comparisons, the findings make it clear that this is an entrenched and ongoing issue in Australia.
“It is important to remember that these numbers reflect the lived experiences of thousands of Australians, many of whom carry the impacts of trauma across their lives, often in silence. Sexual violence against children continues to happen now in homes, schools, institutions, and communities. It is a complex issue that is driven by a range of individual, social, cultural, and systemic factors,
“A coordinated, national and multisectoral response is urgently needed. This includes delivering primary prevention activities that are appropriately targeted for a range of audiences, strengthening the capacity of adults and professionals to identify and respond to abuse, and ensuring victim-survivors have access to timely, trauma-informed care. Crucially, our response must be supported by serious, sustained investment and political will — across education, health, justice, and child protection systems.”
Conflict of interest statement: Board Director for Australian Association for Adolescent Health and Society of Australian Sexologists. Founder of Bloom-ED. Unpaid advisor for a range of local, national and international public health initiatives.
Dr Paul Read, Higher Degrees by Research Supervisor at UTS and Director of the Future Emergency Resilience Network (FERN), comments:
“A global dataset of sexual violence against children, here defined as below the age of 18, has never been attempted to this degree (from 1990-2023) and paints a sobering picture for Australia.
“Almost one in three Australian girls (27.8%) and one in six boys (16.9%) have been sexually abused before the age of 18. This is not a small number and places Australia among the world’s worst offenders, close to India, which is the world’s worst at 30.8 % of girls and 13.5% of boys. (As a side note, contiguous Bangladesh is one of the least so it’s cultural, not genetic).
“It should be remembered this is sexual violence. Global datasets help put in context the scope of the problem and highlight trends in data. Sadly, the authors find the data trends to be fairly stable, which means this is a stable cultural characteristic. For example, data trends show that Australian femicide is falling across years, though we still have a national crisis, whereas this data on child sexual assault shows no such trend.
“Years ago another set of researchers found that Japan was one of the highest producers of child pornography in the 1990s but that Australia was one of the world’s highest consumers. This also accords with some of the worst crimes committed against children where Australians have been involved in child sex tourism. It also accords with the widespread predation on Australian children by religious orders.
“This is victim-level data rather than reported to police, which means it’s more accurate but still likely an underestimate. For additional context, Australia’s predation on its own children is fully 47% higher than the world average for girls. The fact that it’s only 14% higher for boys means that it is very much gendered, reflecting a nation even more likely to see its girls as sexual prey.
“This is a national disgrace and should be investigated by the Albanese government.”
Conflicts of interest statement: None declared.
Jaya Dantas, Professor of International Health in the School of Population Health at Curtin University, comments:
“A new article, just released by the Lancet Commission is one of the first studies on Sexual Violence against Children (SVAC), with data from 204 countries by age and sex. The study has documented confronting figures – 18.9% of adolescent young women and 14.8 % of adolescent young men under 18 years globally experienced sexual violence. The article reports that 7.7% of the 16,786 females globally had experienced sexual violence before the age of 12 years with this increasing to 67.3% before the age of 18 years.
“The highest average rates for sexual violence against young women were recorded in South Asia and for young men in Africa. There were also stark and notable regional, country and geographic differences with estimates for India being 30.8% of young women and 13.5% of young men and 27.5% of young women and 16.1% of young men for the USA.
“SVAC is a critical human rights, public health, social, and community issue with significant long-term impacts. Survivors face a lifetime of health conditions with major psychosocial and mental health impacts, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and STIs and chronic conditions. The authors state that SVAC is often under-reported, so actual figures may be much higher and there is a dire need for resources and funding to develop health system support for surveillance in all countries for accurate estimation of SVAC so that targeted interventions and services are provided to survivors throughout their life and globally generations of children can be protected.”
Conflicts of interest statement: None declared.