What is sexual assault?

Because of the trauma associated with an experience of sexual assault/abuse and the social stigma surrounding the crime, many sexual assault/abuse victims feel confused and tend to downplay or minimize their experiences.

Sexual Assault: includes any form of sexual activity with a person without his/her consent. This may include:

• Any kissing, fondling, touching, oral/anal sex or sexual intercourse without consent
• Not stopping sexual contact when asked to
• Forcing someone to engage in sexual intercourse or any other sexual act (Department of Justice Canada, 2005b).

Sexual Abuse and Exploitation

Sexual abuse and exploitation involves using a child for sexual purposes. Examples of child sexual abuse include fondling, inviting a child to touch or be touched sexually, intercourse, rape, incest, sodomy, exhibitionism, or involving a child in prostitution or pornography (Department of Justice Canada, 2005a).

Who is at risk of sexual assault / sexual abuse?

• Survivors of sexual assault/abuse are boys and girls, women and men, young and old.
• 39% of Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of sexual assault since the age of 16 (Statistics Canada, 1993).
• 8% of adult victims of sexual assault were men, reported to 154 police agencies across Canada (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2003).
• The most extensive study of child sexual abuse in Canada was conducted by the Committee on Sexual Offences Against Children and Youths (Badgley, 1988). Study findings indicated that, among adult Canadians
  • 53 % of women and
  • 31 % of men were sexually abused when they were children.

Who commits sexual assault/abuse?

Strangers were the assailants in 20% of sexual assaults reported to the police in 2003 (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics). All other assaults were committed by someone known to the survivor with the highest proportion of acquaintance assaults (41%) committed by a casual acquaintance of the survivor.

Children aged 12 and under are most often victimized by family members especially in the case of girls (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2003).

In reported sexual assaults, 97% of sex offenders are men (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2003).

Sobsey (1994) found that almost half of the perpetrators of abuse against people with disabilities made contact with the abuse survivor through services related to the survivor's disability.

A study in the United States by the Centre for Research on Women with Disabilities (1999), suggests that women with disabilities are more likely to be abused by medical professionals and parents than women without disabilities.

Where are people at risk of sexual assault/abuse?

• Of sexual assaults reported to police in Canada in 2002,
  • 64% took place in a residence,
  • 26% in a public place,
  • 10% in commercial places.
    (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2003).
    
    

What should I do if I was sexually assaulted/abused?

Go to the Getting Help section of this web site for detailed instructions you should do.