What is sexual violence and how frequently does it occur?
Sexual violence can take many forms. This makes it difficult to provide a single definition of what exactly constitutes sexual violence. The definition also varies between different disciplines – for example, the definition of sexual violence in the criminal code is not the same as in social sciences such as psychology or education.
Definition of sexual violence
In principle, we use a broad definition of sexual violence at the Centre for Research on Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents (ZEFSG). In our view, any sexual act performed on, with or in front of children and adolescents against their will, or to which they cannot knowingly consent due to physical, emotional, mental or linguistic inferiority, is defined as sexual abuse or sexual violence.
This definition is taken from the website of the Independent Federal Commissioner Against Child Sexual Abuse (UBSKM), which also contains lots more useful information on this topic (https://beauftragte-missbrauch.de/themen/definition/definition-von-kindesmissbrauch).
Sexual violence is therefore not only limited to physical contact with other people, but can also take place in part or in whole in the digital world, for example, through the non-consensual creation of explicit images or the receipt of unsolicited sexual messages.
Children and adolescents often experience other forms of violence in addition to sexual violence:
Physical violence
Physical violence means intentionally inflicting physical pain on another person – this could be hitting, using force or other forms of assault. Other examples of physical violence are pulling hair, pinching or keeping someone imprisoned.
Psychological violence
Psychological violence is defined as violence directed against another person’s thoughts and feelings, such as insults, threats or discrimination.
Neglect
We understand neglect to mean the failure of adults to meet the basic needs of children and adolescents, for example, through inappropriate clothing, a lack of food and drink or the absence of emotional care.
Passive violence
In addition, children and adolescents can also experience passive violence and other distressing events, such as natural catastrophes, war or debilitating medical treatments.
Extent of violence against children and adolescents
Violence against children and adolescents takes many forms – and is more common than many people think. To date, various studies have examined the extent of this violence. A nationwide representative survey of adults in Germany by Jarczok et al. in 2023 shows the following prevalence rates:
9% of respondents reported experiencing sexual violence during their childhood or adolescence, 20% reported physical violence and 22% psychological violence. 16% of respondents told of experiencing neglect.
Since previous studies on the topic have predominantly asked adults whether they experienced violence in their childhood or adolescence, the existing data does not allow us to determine how many young people are actually affected by violence today.
9 %
Sexual violence
20 %
Physical violence
22 %
Psychological violence
16 %
Neglect