FACT SHEET: sexual assault & sexual abuse

Definitions (Department of Justice Canada)

Sexual assault

Any form of sexual activity performed without a person's consent. This may include:

• Kissing
• Fondling or touching
• Oral sex
• Anal sex
• Sexual intercourse
• Not stopping sexual contact when asked
• Forcing someone to engage in sexual intercourse or any other sexual act

Child sexual abuse & exploitation

Using a child for sexual purposes. Examples of child sexual abuse include:

• Fondling
• Inviting a child to touch or be touched sexually
• Sexual intercourse
• Rape
• Incest
• Sodomy
• Exhibitionism
• Masturbation
• Speaking or compelling a child to speak in a sexual manner
• Involving a child in prostitution or pornography

Stalking

Includes being followed or spied on, receiving threatening and/or unwanted phone calls, e-mails, letters and unwanted gifts. This is repeated on numerous occasions and in general serves no legitimate purpose but to cause the recipient to fear for their own safety.

Sexual Harassment  (Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission)

Any unwelcome behaviour, that is sexual in nature, that adversely affects, or threatens to affect, directly or indirectly, a person's job security, working conditions or prospects for promotion or earnings; or prevents a person from getting a job, living accommodations or any kind of public service. This includes:

• Suggestive remarks, sexual jokes or compromising invitations
• Verbal abuse
• Visual display of suggestive images
• Leering or whistling
• Patting, rubbing or other unwanted physical contact
• Outright demands for sexual favours
• Physical assault

Who is at risk of sexual assault/sexual abuse?

There are no boundaries in today's society that the trauma of sexual assault and sexual abuse hasn't crossed. Geographic, gender, racial, social, economic, educational, cultural -- every demographic category generates a long list of survivors. There is no stereotypical victim who can be identified as a potential target for sexual abuse or sexual assault.

A total of 27,154 sexual offences were reported in Canada in 2004, including 24,049 sexual assaults and 3,105 other types of sexual offences (such as sexual touching, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation, incest, sodomy and bestiality).

Women are at risk

• Women make up the vast majority of victims of sexual assault (86%) and other types of sexual offences (78%) (Statistics Canada, 2001).
• More than one-third of Canadian women (39%) have experienced at least one incident of sexual assault since the age of 16 (Statistics Canada, 1993).
• 58% of Alberta women have experienced at least one incident of sexual or physical assault since the age of 16 (Statistics Canada, 1993).
• Rates of reported sexual assault are more than three times higher for Indigenous women than non-Indigenous women in the United States (U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1999).
• A Canadian study estimates that 40% of women with disabilities have had some experience with assault, sexual assault or childhood sexual abuse (Stimpson and Best, 1991).
• It's estimated that women with disabilities are 1.5 to 10 times more likely to be abused than non-disabled women, depending on whether they live in the community or in institutions (Sobsey, 1988).
• A study found that 20% of lesbians had experienced some form of emotional/psychological or physical violence while in a relationship with another woman. In that study, 11% of the women had experienced physical violence in the relationship, and 2% had been sexually assaulted.

Men are at risk

According to 2003 data from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, a significant number of Canadian sexual assault survivors (as reported to 154 police agencies) are male:

• 29% of child abuse victims were boys
• 12% of youth victims were male
• 8% of adult victims were male
  

• Research (McClennen, Summers and Vaughan, 2002) suggests that 28% of gay men experience sexual assault committed by their partner.
• Adult men with disabilities experience sexual abuse more often than those without them: 30% of sexual abuse survivors with disabilities are male (Sobsey, 1994).

Children are at risk

• In an extensive 1988 Canadian study, a shocking 53% of women and 31% of men indicated they had experienced some form of child sexual abuse (Badgley, 1988).
• About 4% of boys and 10% of girls experience severe sexual abuse before the age of 17 (MacMillan, Fleming, & Trocme et al, 1997).
• In 2003, 61% of all victims of sexual assault reported to the police were children and youth under 18 years of age. Reports of girl victims were highest at ages 11 to 19, and reports of boy victims were highest at 3 to 14 years of age (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics).
• Statistics suggest that girls are more frequently abused than boys (as high as 1 out of 3 girls versus 1 in 6 boys), but this may only reflect the reality that sexual abuse involving males of any age is reported far less frequently than sexual abuse involving females.
• A Canadian study found that 40 to 70% of female children with developmental disabilities and 15 to 30% of male children with developmental disabilities experience sexual abuse (Roeher Institute, 1992).

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).

Among substantiated cases reported to Child Welfare Authorities in Canada, (Trocme, MacLaurin, and Fallon, et al. 2001) statistics indicate this breakdown of child-offender relationships:

• 28%   Non-parental relatives
• 15%   Biological fathers
• 9%   Step-fathers
• 5%   Biological mothers

• Almost half of the offenders who sexually abused people with disabilities made contact with the victim through services related to the survivor's disability (Sobsey, 1994).
• An American study suggests that women with disabilities are more likely to be abused by parents or medical professionals than women without disabilities (Centre for Research on Women with Disabilities, 1999).

Where are people at risk of sexual assault/abuse?

• Police reported the highest levels of sexual offences Saskatoon, Sudbury and Regina. Edmonton ranked 10th and Calgary ranked 19th out of 25 Canadian cities (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2003).
• In 1993, Alberta had the second highest rate of sexual assault in Canada (Statistics Canada).

Of sexual assaults reported to police in Canada (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2003):

• 64% occurred in a residence
• 26% occurred in a public place
• 11% occurred in commercial places

• The risk for people with disabilities of being sexually abused while in institutions is two to four times more likely than the risk of being sexually abused in the community (Sobsey and Mansell, 1992).

Impacts of sexual assault & sexual abuse

Anyone who has been sexually abused or assaulted, female or male, straight or gay, experiences lasting effects and suffers emotional pain. The traumatic disruption of the body and spirit profoundly affects survivors in many painful ways, and no two people will suffer -- or recover -- in exactly the same manner, intensity or period of time.

Many of the impacts of sexual abuse and sexual assault are longer-term problems that affect virtually all aspects of a survivor's life. A large number of them arise out of the survivor's best efforts to cope with an extremely stressful experience.

• A survivor's customary feeling of personal safety and security crumbles in the aftermath of sexual violence. The ability to trust, both in oneself and in others, is greatly reduced.

• Survivors of child sexual abuse sometimes create coping mechanisms as children that are carried forward into adulthood, where they no longer work well and can even cause new problems to develop.
• Young women who experience sexual assault may also be strongly affected by the reactions of others, including parents, siblings and peers. In today's hyperactive social media world, rumours and gossip can spread in a matter of seconds. Peers can be especially insensitive about a situation they have few facts about and don't understand.
• Family and friends of survivors will become "secondary victims" of the experience. Spouses and partners are often the ones most affected in this way, and may find themselves struggling with relationship challenges even as they try to be the survivor's primary source of emotional support.
• Parents of survivors face extremely difficult circumstances. Emotional turmoil is coupled with frustration at the inability to heal a child's pain, and confusion about emerging changes in behaviour. Supporting a child survivor's recovery process is a constant drain on physical energies and emotional resources, and the parents' own relationship may experience stress.
• Depending on circumstances, families can come together or be pulled apart by their reactions to sexual violence. At any age, brothers and sisters can be supportive of their abused sibling or feel resentful about the added attention they receive. If the offender was a trusted relative, feelings of disbelief or denial can emerge to cause internal family conflict.
• Women from "marginalized" communities, including immigrant or refugee women, elderly women, native women, women with disabilities, lesbians, homeless women, women in prison and women from low-income households can face additional obstacles when attempting to recover from -- or even report -- sexual abuse or sexual assault.

Our culture diminishes sexual abuse and sexual assault. Its survivors are constantly being accused of lying or told that the crime is in some way their own fault. People will tend to fault a victim instead of a perpetrator. If they choose to report the crime and press charges, survivors can discover they lack support from family and friends for doing so.

AASAS welcomes your suggestions and recommendations about other relevant research references that could be included on this website. Please e-mail us at info@aasas.ca.

References

Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission. (2004). Sexual Harassment.

Badgley, R. (1988). Child Sexual Abuse in Canada: Further Analysis of the 1983 National Survey. Ottawa, Ontario: Health and Welfare Canada.

Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. (2003). Juristat, 23 (6), 1 - 26.

Centre for Research on Women with Disabilities. (1999). National Study of Women with Physical Disabilities.

Department of Justice Canada. (2005a). Child Abuse: A Fact Sheet From the Department of Justice Canada.

Department of Justice Canada. (2005b). Dating Violence: A Fact Sheet From the Department of Justice Canada

Department of Justice Canada. (2005c). Criminal Harassment.

Sobsey, D. (1994). Violence and Abuse in the Lives of People with Disabilities: The End of Silent Acceptance? Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Sobsey, D. and S, Mansell. (1992). The Prevention of Sexual Abuse of People with Developmental Disabilities. Network, 2 (3), 8 - 17.

Statistics Canada. (1993). The Violence Against Women Survey (Catalogue 11 - 001E). The Daily, 1 - 9.

Amnesty International. (2004). Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada.

Health Canada. (1998). Abuse in Lesbian Relationships: Information and Resources.

Moeller, T.P. and Bachmann G.A. (1993). The Combined Effects of Physical, Sexual and Emotional Abuse During Childhood: Long-term Health

Consequences for Women. Child Abuse and Neglect, 17 (5), 623 - 640.

Sobsey, D. (1988). Sexual Offenses and Disabled Victims: Research and Practical Implications. Vis-à-vis, 6 (4). 1 - 2.

Statistics Canada. (2001). Canadian Crime Statistics 2000 (Catalogue 85 - 205).

Statistics Canada. (2005). Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile (Catalogue 85 - 224).

Stimpson, L. and Best, M. (1991). Courage Above All: Sexual Assault Against Women With Disabilities. Toronto: Disabled Women's Network Canada.

U.S. Department of Justice. (1991). American Indians and Crime.