Data on the number of boys affected is even more sparse, Ms Cappa said, comprehensively collected by just 17 per cent of countries. Using this data plus extrapolations of the figures for women and girls, Unicef estimated that between 240 and 310 million boys and men (roughly 1 in 11) experience rape or sexual assault during childhood.
“Why is this data not collected? Because there is a lot of stigma around the issue,” she said, adding that survivors often do not want to talk about it, while national statistics offices “have not given the issue the attention it deserves”.
“I can say up front, even if we were to have data for every single country in the world, there is always a level of underreporting, because most girls, women, boys and men do not want to talk about it,” Ms Cappa said. “They don’t go to the police, they don’t tell a friend, and they certainly do not tell an interviewer in a household survey [for government data].”
But based on the data that is available, Unicef warned found that although sexual violence is prevalant across cultural and economic boundaries, prevalence of rape and sexual assault in childhood jumps to one in four among women and girls living in conflict zones or fragile settings.
“We are witnessing horrific sexual violence in conflict zones, where rape and gender-based violence are often used as weapons of war,” said Catherine Russell, executive director of Unicef.
Regional trends also varied. Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest number of victims, with 79 million girls and women affected, but the highest rates were in Oceania – where 34 per cent of women experienced some form of physical, verbal or online sexual violence before their 18th birthday.
