More than 635 000 sexual assaults in Canada in 2014

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QMI agency

Tuesday, 11 July, 2017 10:51

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Tuesday, 11 July, 2017 10:51

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More than 635 000 sexual assaults have taken place in the country in 2014, according to a Statistics Canada survey released Tuesday morning.

Women are overwhelmingly the victims (87 %), according to what have said the 35 167 respondents to this survey. The aggressors are almost all men (94 %), who were acting alone (79 % of cases) and that in general were less than 35 years (68 % of them).

The sexual touching is unwanted is by far the assault is the most frequent with 71% of cases, compared to 20% for attacks of a sexual nature, and 9 % for a sexual activity to which the victim could not consent, including because of the effect of a drug or alcohol, or because she was manipulated.

According to Statistics Canada, this study reveals that 22 sexual assaults have occurred for every 1,000 Canadians 15 years and older in 2014.

No decrease

Even if the crime rate is declining, the rate of self-reported sexual assaults has not moved from 2004 to 2014, noted the federal agency. Despite this, the rate of sexual assaults reported by the police fell by 20 % in the country during this period. Statistics Canada considers, therefore, that “because of a range of factors, the police data may under-estimate the nature and extent of sexual assault”.

Only a sexual assault on 20 has been reported to the police in 2014, the same proportion as in 2004. Several reasons are cited by victims for not talking to the police. In 71 % of cases, the victim felt that the offense was trivial and not worth the trouble to be reported; 67 % of the time, the event was considered a personal matter that has been settled informally, while the fact that no one was injured was mentioned for 63 % of the cases.

For 45 % of victims report the assault to the police embêtait. In 43% of cases, the event would not have been considered important enough or he would not have had enough evidence to go to the police. Approximately 40% of victims self-reported to have said that they do not go to the police because they believe that the attacker would not have been punished sufficiently.