The Reality of Sexual Violence
What is it?
Sexual violence is this umbrella term that encompasses all sexual behaviours or actions that are unwanted, coerced, or committed without voluntary consent. According to the World Health Organization, sexual violence is when coercion is used “by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting” to bring about or attempt to bring about sexual activity”. Sexual violence occurs in all communities, cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, social and economic classes, and is perpetrated by and against people of all sexual expressions, genders, ages, and abilities. Perpetrators of sexual violence are often people close to those they victimize (e.g., they are family members, partners, etc.) or they victimize other people in their lives (e.g., their students, colleagues, neighbours, etc.).
Sexual violence includes both contact and non-contact interactions. Including:
- sexual assault
- sexual harassment
- child sexual abuse
- sexual exploitation
- sextortion
Among many others.
Sexual violence is a violent crime whether or not physical injury has occurred. Victims may experience a lost sense of safety, security, or control of their own body. These feelings can be compacted if the victim was a young age when the abuse was experienced.
How prevalent is it?
Currently, sexual violence is the only violent crime in Canada not on a decline (Samuel Perreault, Statistics Canada, 2014). In Alberta nearly 1.8 million Albertans have experienced at least one incident of sexual violence in their lifetime, that is nearly 43% of the population (Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services, 2020). See What-is-Sexual-abuse-and-sexual-assault.pdf (thedragonflycentre.com) to learn more.
Sexual violence is not just a woman’s issue, or a child’s issue, but a human issue. Men experience sexual violence too. Commonly, most surveys or statistics cannot grasp the entire scope of male-identifying sexual violence victims as there are increased barriers to reporting and disclosing.
How can we prevent it?
Often, people try to prevent sexual violence using individual risk-reducing strategies such as not going out late at night or using the buddy system. However, sexual violence, just like any other form of violence (physical violence, financial violence or emotional violence) is primarily motivated by power and control. The choice to sexually violate someone is the result of societal norms and attitudes. These norms or attitudes are often referred to as “Rape Culture” *. In order to eliminate this preventable violence, we must shift our views as a society. This means that we need to start believing and supporting survivors and not holding them responsible for the violence that they experienced. We need to increase preventative education like giving everyone an understanding of consent, coercion, boundaries, and respect. At the Dragonfly Centre, we believe that education is the best form of prevention and one of the best advocates for survivors.
*At Dragonfly Centre Sexual Violence Services, we understand that sexual violence encompasses more than just rape and that rape is not a legal term within Canada
Watch this video where one of our Dragonfly team member’s explains more (4:28 min).