A new study of government data has revealed a heartbreaking and maddening statistic about women and sexual assault. Per PBS, new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week notes that for one in 16 women, their first experience with sexual intercourse was forced with rape or coercion.
That number is shocking, but how did the researchers arrive at it? According to PBS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention questioned a sample of 13,310 women, ages 18 to 44 about marriage, divorce, family life, reproductive health, and more between 2011 and 2017. (It should be noted that men were not asked about their first time and women with no history of vaginal intercourse and girls 17 or younger were not included in this sample.)
Still, a horrific 6.5 percent of the women questioned said their first time having sex was non-consensual. If that number is representative, it would mean about 3.3 million women in America are in a similar position. The average age of the women at the time of these assaults was about 15.6, with seven percent of the women telling researchers they were younger than 10 at the time of the assault, 29 percent saying they were between the ages of 11 and 14, and 39 percent saying the event happened between the ages of 15 and 17.
“Quite honestly, that’s the tip of the iceberg,” Laura Hawks, the co-author on the report and a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, said, noting that if the sample had included girls or women older than 45 the number might be even higher.
As women know all too well, the effects of sexual assault are real and can last a lifetime. Thirty percent of women whose first experience of sex was rape or assault reported an unwanted pregnancy later on, compared to 18 percent of women who said they made a choice to have sex for the first time. Women forced into sex also were slightly more likely to have had abortion and problems ovulating or menstruating.
One of the reasons for the study, according to Hawks, is to inform physicians about caring for patients who may have experienced a trauma. “Any physical exam can be traumatizing for someone who has encountered physical or sexual violence in the past,” she said. Patients should be able to grant permission before being asked tough questions and physicians should be sensitive in performing genital exams.
While these numbers are tough to read, studies like this one will hopefully prove vital in helping society recognize how pervasive violence against women truly is and inspire more medical professionals and people in general to believe their stories.
