Around four in ten young women in France reported having experienced forced or attempted sexual intercourse in 2023, reveals a study by Inserm and ANRS Infectious Diseases. A sharply increasing proportion for these women aged 18 to 29: in 2006, “only” 16.5% reported having suffered such an act of sexual violence. For women aged 18 to 69, the increase is again evident: 29.8% in 2023 compared to 15.9% in 2006.
And “many of these acts of violence occurred when the person was a minor at the time of the events,” note the authors of the investigation. Who analyze this increase in figures in three ways: “an increase in the frequency of such events”, “an increase in the ability to qualify acts of violence” and “a greater ease in evoking them in the context of research “.
Men victims of such acts also follow this trend observed among women: 12.4% of young men say they have already experienced forced or attempted sexual intercourse in 2023. Much more than in 2006 (4.7%).
Developments on the concept of consent
These figures also reflect “the developments and the very definition of sexual violence” which “has changed over time”, while the notion of consent resurfaced in the 2010s with the #MeToo shock wave. . While marital rape has only been recognized in law since 1992 in France, “acts formerly considered normal can now be rightly qualified as forced sex”, underlines the investigation.
The question of redefining rape in the Penal Code so that the absence of consent is taken into account is re-emerging in France. Currently in France, article 222-23 of the Penal Code defines rape as “any act of sexual penetration (…) committed by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”, without mentioning the notion of consent.
Online sexual harassment
The published survey also attempts to understand the extent of different forms of online sexual harassment. To date, one in three women under the age of 30 and one in 4 men have reported having “had a harmful experience online” in 2023. Figures much higher than for their elders (13.1% of women and 12.8% of men aged 18 to 89).
This sexual harassment takes different forms: “reception of unsolicited intimate or sexual messages or images, unknowing distribution of intimate images”, specifies the investigation. Faced with this worrying development, it is appropriate to “develop lifelong education policies on these new forms of intimate exchanges”, and “care for people confronted with digital sexual violence”.
France
