One in 10 women in Britain admit that they have been forced into having sex against their will, the most comprehensive survey of Britons’ sexual behavior for decade revealed on Monday, prompting a warning from researchers that sexual coercion may have become “normalized.”
The findings from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), which questioned 15,000 people aged 16 to 74, also show that the proportion of women saying they have been victims of sexual coercion is more than double that of those who say they have been victims of rape.
Wendy Macdowall, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the lead Natsal author, said that education needed to address sexual coercion, which had become “normalized ... with rape at the extreme end of the spectrum.”
Those surveyed were asked “whether anyone has ever actually made them have sex against their will” and 9.8 percent of women said they had, at an average age of 18. For men the equivalent figure was 1.4 percent, according to the research, which was published in the Lancet on Monday.
Macdowall said that there was a need for early intervention in schools to help address the problem “before those gender stereotypes are developing” and because “somebody who has been victimized at a young age is much more likely to be victimized later.”
In 15 percent of cases among women and men recorded by Natsal, the perpetrator was a stranger. Among female victims who were aged 13 to 15 when the event occurred, a family member or friend was responsible in nearly half of cases (45.2 percent), while for women aged 25 and over, a former or current partner was responsible in seven out of every 10 cases.
The responses also confirmed huge under-reporting by victims, with 12.9 percent of women saying that they had reported the matter to the police, compared with 8 percent of male victims. Natsal, which interviewed people between September 2010 and August last year, also produced data on sexual behavior, fertility, contraceptive use and sex-related diseases. The study follows previous ones in 1990 and 2000. However, the most recent was the first to ask people about sex against their will.
The survey also found that one in six pregnancies are unplanned.
The age of first sexual experience, at 16, has remained the same as in the 2000 survey and the number of people having sex before the age of consent has not differed significantly either (31 percent of men and 29 percent of women). However, with people cohabiting with a partner later and having children later, the researchers warned that there was a longer period when people were at more risk of “negative sexual outcomes” such as sexually transmitted diseases.
When the first survey was carried out, men had had more sexual partners than women and while that remains the case, the gap is narrowing. Men also used to have their first heterosexual experience at a younger age, but now it is the same for women. Additionally, while the number of men reporting same-sex partners has changed little from 1990, for women it has increased from 1.8 percent to 7.9 percent over the past 20 years.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of