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Author Archives: Suzanna Austin

97000 people per year

By Suzanna Austin | Tue 27th November 2018 - 11:55 am

Content warning: Sexual violence

In England and Wales every year approximately 85,000 women and 12,000 men are raped; that’s roughly 11 rapes (of adults alone) every hour of every day. When you look at the number of adults sexually assaulted each year in England and Wales that number jumps to nearly half a million. Economically the cost of sexual offences in a year is estimated to be £8.46bn.

1 in 5 adult women will or has experienced some form of sexual violence. The numbers of people affected by sexual violence are so large that it is doubtful that there is a single person in Britain unaffected in some way – whether they realise or not is a different matter.

Along with societal taboos and much needed anonymity, issues surrounding sexual violence crimes remain very shrouded in mystery. It is this that helped me decide to share some of what it feels like and how the tentacles of power keep inflicting pain long after the initial crime.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged 16 days of activism to end gender based violence, featured and sexual violence | 8 Comments

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