Ten percent of Norwegian women say they have been raped and one-third of those who said they were attacked said they never told anyone about it, a survey finds. Only 11 percent said they reported the rape to authorities, Media said Wednesday. In most cases, women said their attackers were people they knew, including relatives, neighbors, boyfriends and ex-boyfriends and friends, acquaintances and colleagues.The National Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies questioned 2,435 women and 2,092 men. While 9.4 percent of the women reported having been sexually assaulted, only 1.1 percent of men did so.
“These is very serious information, and the dark figures presented here are much larger than what we’ve seen in public statistics,” Justice Minister Anders Anundsen told the newspaper VG. “What concerns me, as well as the scale, is that so few come forward. They decide to keep it to themselves, rather than take advantage of the support system that exists.”
Ole Kristian Hjemdal, who is on the center’s staff, said many women said they did not think reporting the attack would have any results.
The survey found 49 percent of the women who said they had been raped said it happened before they turned 18.
Other survey details, such as a margin of error, were not available.
(upi)
