Citation

Sex. Health Exch. 1998; (1): 3-4.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Royal Tropical Institute)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12348693

Abstract

Based on selected reports from the US, Germany, Egypt, South Africa, Swaziland, and Croatia, this paper presents evidence of the prevalence of and attitudes of people towards abuse. In the US, a nationwide survey of 6748 adolescents found that 25% of the girls had been physically or sexually abused or forced to have sex against their will. It also found that 12% of the secondary school and 8% of the primary school boys had experienced physical abuse. In Germany, results of a study revealed that 1 in 7 women are sexually harassed or raped at least once in their lives and only 5% of them report the crime to the police. In Egypt, a survey among 7000 married women showed that 35% of the respondents had been beaten at least once by their husbands, nearly 70% after refusing sex and 7.3% were pregnant. Another poll by the National Population Council indicated that Egyptian women consider female genital mutilation a positive tradition, with a prevalence rate of 97% in married women. In South Africa, crimes of rape have been noted to increase overall by nearly 20% between 1994 and 1996. In Swaziland, a study found that street children are often abused especially boys. In Croatia, wife beating had increased by 11% from 1996 to 1997.

Language: en