One in three
women in the European Union has been physically or sexually assaulted, a new
large-scale study has revealed. The report is the most comprehensive of its
kind to date both in the bloc and worldwide.
The
Vienna-based EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) released the major study
Wednesday. The report "shows that physical, sexual and psychological
violence against women is an extensive human rights abuse in all EU Member
States," FRA director Morten Kjaerum said, calling for measures tackling
violence against women "to be taken to a new level now".
The agency
randomly selected 42,000 women aged 18-74 to interview across the bloc
throughout 2012, making it the world's largest report on violence against women
to date.
One in 10
women has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 15 and one
in 20 has been raped. One in five has experienced physical and or sexual
violence by a current or previous partner, according to the report.
The study
also found that many instances of abuse are under-reported to authorities. Only
14 percent of women reported their most serious incident of partner violence to
police and 13 percent of their most serious non-partner violence.
The FRA
report also covered the role played by new technologies in violence against
women and found that 20 percent of young women (18-29) have been victims of
such cyber-harassment.
The report
also said the emotional and psychological consequences of physical and sexual
violence "can be long-lasting and deep-seated,” with over a fifth of
sexual violence victims suffering from panic attacks and over a third becoming
depressed.
Violence by
country
There were
also large differences between countries of the bloc.
At the top
end, 52 percent of women in Denmark were said to have suffered physical and/or
sexual abuse, while the rate was 47 percent in Finland and 46 percent in
Sweden. Germany came in above the EU average with 35 percent having suffered
abuse.
At the
other end of the scale, the report found that 19 percent of women in Poland had
suffered in the same way, followed by Austria (20 percent) and Croatia (21
percent).
hc/dr (AFP, dpa)
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