The report everybody is talking about...

‘I thought it was just a part of life' reveals 97% of women have suffered repeated violence

A new revelatory report has revealed that 97% of women have been repeatedly subjected to violence - including assaults, harassment, and rape.

‘I thought it was just a part of life’ is considered to be one of the largest ever studies on violence committed against women and girls, questioning more than 22,000 women in the UK.

Created by VictimFocus, the 30 page report found that women were, on average, subjected to at least 26 sexual crimes in their lifespan, including physical or sexual assault, rape, forced pregnancy or termination, sexual exploitation, rape threats, death threats, and digital sexual crimes.

Only 0.3% of the women questioned had only been subjected to one violent incident or less.

“The data we have seen so far has been devastating,” said Dr Jessica Taylor, who co-authored the report along with Jaimi Shrive.

“We used a new methodology I adapted from an old study in Sweden, which encourages people to explore instances of abuse and violence that they may not have considered before.

“This study will certainly change the way we look at Violence Against Women and Girls forever, considering that it shows that our ‘one in five’ and ‘one in 10’ stats, often used in VAWG, weren’t accurate.

“87% of 22,419 women said they were sexually abused in childhood. That is much higher than any of our estimates have ever been."

The report revealed that of the 22,419 women questioned, 70% had been slapped, punched or hit, 30% had been kicked, 18% had been strangled or choked, and 32% threatened with death or serious harm.

It also found that 51% had been kissed without consent, 80% were sexually touched without consent, 30% were forced to engage in sex acts by someone before the age of 13, 33% were forced or coerced into penetrative sex they did not consent to, and 20% were given alcohol or drugs before being forced into sexual activity.

36% were sent an unsolicited nude picture of a male, 50% were sent sexually offensive or violent messages online, 11% were sent a rape threat from a man online, and 10% had their private images - including nudes and videos - shared online.

The report has generated a lot of attention since being shared last month, becoming the focus of discussion on TV and radio, as well as being shared thousands of times online. A copy of the report has also been sent to every MP in the UK.

Dr Taylor, author of ‘Why women are culture of victim-blaming’ said: “One of the key issues this study raises for social workers is the challenge to dominant assumptions and theories in our work. The ones that most urgently need reflection are vulnerability theories and re-victimisation theories.

“This report suggests that sexual violence is so common in our society, that it is not just a handful of vulnerable girls being targeted and abused, or revictimised, due to some sort of inherent vulnerability in them, their personality, their environment, upbringing, or background.

“In the short term, the most important implication of this report is to change the way we report and talk about violence committed against women and girls, and challenge victim blaming, and stereotyping of victims.

“It suggests the current statistics of the prevalence of violence against women have been underestimated for decades, and we hope this data will be considered by academics, government, authorities, police, social care, psychology, national health, and mental health services.”