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PeNSE

One of every five school girls has suffered sexual violence

Section: Social Statistics | Cristiane Crelier | Design: Brisa Gil e Jessica Candido

September 10, 2021 10h00 AM | Last Updated: September 15, 2021 05h28 PM

  • Highlights

  • More than 20% of the teenagers aged 13 to 17 have already been touched, manipulated, kissed or had body parts exposed against their will.
  • And 8.8% of the girls at this age have already been forced to have sex, most of them before 14 years of age.
  • Among public school students there were more reports of this kind of violence than among those from private schools: 16.3% against 14.4%.
  • Aggressors tend to be close people, in most cases, with 29.1% being boyfriends or girlfriends and 24.8%, friends.
  • At least 21% of teenagers aged 13 and 17 claimed to have been assaulted by their father or guardians at some point in the 12 months prior to the survey
  • 13.2% reported having been victims of physical aggression by people other than their father or mother or guardian.
More than 20% of school girls claimed to have already suffered some kind of sexual violence. Among boys, the percentage is of 9%. Photo: Anete Lusina/Pexels

Sexual violence is present in the lives of a significant percentage of boys and girls who attend school. Among girls, one in five teenagers (20.1%) aged 13 to 17 says they have already been touched, manipulated, kissed or had body parts exposed against their will. And 8.8% of girls at this age have already been forced into sex, most of them before 14 years of age. Boys are also victims of this type of violence, but to much smaller percentages. The aggressors are usually people close to the victims. In addition, the socioeconomic context may determine where each type of aggression is more common, with sexual harassment rates being higher among students in private schools and rape rates among students in public schools.

These are some of the data obtained by the 2019 National Survey of School Health (PeNSE), which interviewed students of this age group throughout Brazil on various topics, ranging from habits and health to self-image and mental health. PeNSE's information collection method, through a mobile device used by teenagers themselves, guarantees the anonymity and individuality of the respondent, so that students are less afraid to answer about sensitive topics.

“This way, we are able to better collect information on sexual violence, which is not usually reported to authorities in general, mainly in the case of people under 18, as they generally do not know who to report to”, says Ms. Cristiane Soares, one of PeNSE’s analyst.

In general, 14.6% of students aged 13 to 17 said to have suffered some kind of sexual violence at least once in their lives. But the figure among the girls  (20.1%) more than doubled that of boys (9.0%). In private schools, there were more cases of this kind of violence (16.3%) than in the public ones (14.4%)

“We must be alert. Very often seen as “just kidding”, sexual harassment or assault can get close to rape, making victims full of fear and willing to leave school, for instance. This kind of violence may bring several consequences for teenagers, creating a culture of acceptance, where those acts are not seen as serious or punishable”, emphasizes Ms. Soares.