Sexual abuse experienced by one-in-seven young Germans, researchers find
Sexual abuse in childhood or puberty has been experienced by every seventh person in Germany. The findings came from a survey by Ulm city's University Clinic, featured in "Der Spiegel" magazine.
Symbolbild - Sexuelle Missbrauch (colourbox/MAXPP)
Researchers at the southern German clinic found that 13.9 percent of residents in Germany, now older than 14, had confided that they had been sexually abused in their younger years.
Among them, behavior regarded as "severe abuse" had been experienced by 7.6 percent of those sampled.
Problem getting worse
A similar study using the same methodology in 2010 had identified abuse at a level of 12.6 percent and severe abuse at 6.2 percent.
"There can be no question of sounding the all-clear," concluded Professor Jörg Fegert, who was responsible for the clinic's study.
One must instead speak of an increasing trend, Fegert told "Der Spiegel," referring to world-wide scandals of recent years that might have acted as deterrents.
Extraordinary consequences
The Ulm study documents how sexual violence in childhood years can impact on the victims far later in life.
The adults experience a double risk of severe obesity, a triple risk of diabetes and a double risk of high blood pressure, the study found.
They were six times more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and four times more likely to suffer a heart attack.
Victims, when older, were significantly more likely to injure themselves and undertake suicide attempts.
Victimized at five
"Der Spiegel" began its article by citing the tearful testimony of a man now aged 51 who over seven years was victimized as a child by a neighbor.
At the age of 30, he went to police, but his evidence was initially inexact and the abusive acts of the male perpetrator exceeded the statute-of-limitation deadline for prosecution.
Only four years ago, did his memory begin to deliver "very detailed" re-call of how he was abused at the age of five. Eventually, a brother helped testify and confirmed the abuse.
A psychotherapist had diagnosed a post-traumatic stress disorder with depressive episodes and borderline syndrome symptoms, "Der Spiegel" reported.
German study reveals the scope of child
sexual abuse within families
Nearly 70 percent of child sex abuse cases in Germany took place in the family or social circles, a report has found. Researchers also said that children often received delayed help because mothers did not intervene.
Ein Stoff-Teddy liegt auf dem Boden, Symbolfoto Kindheitstrauma und Gewalt Kindesmissbrauch in Deutschland (picture alliance/dpa)
An independent commission investigating child sexual abuse in Germany released an interim report on Wednesday after conducting interviews and gathering responses from hundreds of victims and witnesses.
The report found that a majority of reported cases occurred within the family or close social circles, followed by abuse in institutions such as schools.
The vast majority of victims are female, said commission head Sabine Andresen while presenting the report in Berlin.
The highest number of reported cases occurred in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, followed by the southern state of Bavaria.
Using the stats from above we can probably get pretty close by assuming about 1 in 12 boys and 1 in 4 girls are being abused in Germany.
Little help from families
In cases of sexual abuse that occur within the family, children often received no help or delayed help because mothers failed to intervene, researchers said.
According to victims and witnesses, the vast majority of sexual abuse was carried out by the child's father, followed by their brothers or stepbrothers.
However, the report underlined that mothers played an integral role, stating that only in a few reported cases did mothers believe their children once they spoke about the abuse and intervene on their behalf.
A majority of sexual abusers in the family are
fathers and brothers, the report found
The commission noted that some mothers tolerated the abuse due to powerlessness in the relationship, violence in their partnership or dependency. Additionally, some mothers feared that they would also become the subject of abuse or that they would lose their partner or the whole family.
"The report grants a deep insight into the failure of mothers, but it also shows how little they know about how to help," child abuse commissioner Johannes-Wilhem Rörig told news agency DPA.
Breaking the silence
The independent commission hopes to use the data gathered from surveys and interviews to develop better abuse prevention models, and called for more financial support to continue their research.
The independent commission was established to investigated several forms of child sex abuse in Germany as well as in former East Germany in order to uncover structures that may have fostered abuse in the past.Next year, the commission is set to release its reports on child sexual abuse in churches as well as its findings on cases in former East Germany.
Study shows German students frequently exposed to
sexualized violence
A German study has found that 48 percent of surveyed students aged 14 to 17 have experienced verbal or physical sexual violence. Researchers said that the violence was often carried out by the students' peers. (09.06.2017)
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