More than one in ten French women have been raped, study finds

More than one in ten French women have been raped, according to a study on sexual violence.

Out of the 2,167 women polled by the Fondation Jean Jaures think tank, a staggering 12% said they had suffered ‘sexual penetration with violence, constraint or surprise’.

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One in 20 women (5%) said it had happened more than once.

Of these, 31% said they were raped by their partner, 19% by someone else they know and 17% by a stranger.

Half of the victims were children or teenagers at the time of the attack, which took place at home in 42% of cases.

Only 15% had filed an official complaint but many remained traumatised by the incident, as seen by the fact that a fifth of them had attempted suicide – four times the general rate among French women.

The poll recorded online responses from women aged 18 and over for 10 days this month.

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The Fondation Jean Jaures said some of the respondents may have been encouraged to break their silence by the wave sexual violence claims shared on social media.

Last month, France’s interior ministry said the reporting of sexual assault and rape had risen by 31.5% in the last quarter of 2017, compared with the same period in 2016.

‘One can see the effect of reporting of possibly older incidents in the context of women speaking out following the revelations of the ‘Weinstein’ affair,’ a spokesman said.