Indicator |
Indicator 16.2.3: Proportion of young women and men aged 18–29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18
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Target |
Target 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children
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Organisation |
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
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Definition and concepts |
Definition:
Proportion of young women and men aged 18-29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18
Concepts:
Definition from General Comment No. 13 on the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC):
Sexual violence comprises any sexual activities imposed by an adult on a child against which the child is entitled to protection by criminal law. This includes: (a) The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful or psychologically harmful sexual activity; (b) The use of children in commercial sexual exploitation; (c) The use of children in audio or visual images of child sexual abuse; and (d) Child prostitution, sexual slavery, sexual exploitation in travel and tourism, trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation (within and between countries), sale of children for sexual purposes and forced marriage. Sexual activities are also considered as abuse when committed against a child by another child if the offender is significantly older than the victim or uses power, threat or other means of pressure. Consensual sexual activities between children are not considered as sexual abuse if the children are older than the age limit defined by the State Party.
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Unit of measure |
Proportion
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Data sources |
Household surveys such as DHS have been collecting data on this indicator in low- and middle-income countries since the late 1990s.
The DHS includes a standard module that captures information on a few specific forms of sexual violence. Respondents are asked whether, at any time in their lives (as children or adults), anyone ever forced them – physically or in any other way – to have sexual intercourse or to perform any other sexual acts against their will. Those responding ‘yes’ to this question are then asked how old they were the first time this happened. It is important to flag that the DHS module was not specifically designed to capture experiences of sexual violence in childhood and while it produces data that can be used to report on 16.2.3, further methodological work is needed to develop standard questions specifically designed to measure child sexual abuse.
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Data providers |
National Statistical Offices (for the most part) or line ministries/other government agencies that have conducted national surveys on sexual violence against women and men.
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Comment and limitations |
The availability of comparable data remains a serious challenge in this area as many data collection efforts have relied on different study methodologies and designs, definitions of sexual violence, samples and questions to elicit information. Data on the experiences of boys are particularly sparse. A further challenge in this field is underreporting, especially when it comes to reporting on experiences of sexual violence among boys and men.
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Method of computation |
Number of young women and men aged 18-29 years who report having experienced any sexual violence by age 18 divided by the total number of young women and men aged 18-29 years, respectively, in the population multiplied by 100.
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Metadata update |
2021-12-06
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International organisations(s) responsible for global monitoring |
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
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UN designated tier |
2
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