Managing cases of gender based sexual assault in the Metropole of Tunis, a public health based approach

Evaluation of Sexual Violence Victims: Cross-Sectional Research

“…Relevant studies reported that the victims were abused by familiar individuals with such high rates as 65.5%-84.5%. 7,11,13,15,16,18,20,[23][24][25] In the present study, consistent with the literature, the rate of cases in which the victim knew the aggressor was high (84%). Similar to other relevant studies, the abuser was often (38.2%) a friend or partner of the victim.…”

“…In certain studies, the students and unemployed individuals among the victims rated respectively 31% and 37% in the Netherlands, 38.5% and 15.4% (or 54% and 14% in another study) in Denmark, 22.9% and 66.3% in Tunisia, 52.7% and 20.5% in France, where 87.93% were students in India. 7,[11][12][13][14][15]20 Similar to the other studies, the fact that the predomination of unemployed (50.3%) and student (40%) victims may be associated with the high ratio of the adolescent and younger adult groups based on the mean age of victims. The victim's inability to defend oneself physically or mentally is deemed as a factor that facilitates the act of abuse.…”

“…[7][8][9][10][11] Consistently, in the present study, the mean victim age (20.28 years) is in parallel with the mean victim age (15.9-26.5 years) found in similar studies conducted in other countries. [7][8][9][12][13][14][15][16][17] These data support the idea that mostly the young adults are chosen as targets in sexual offenses.…”

“…Similar to the other studies, the most frequented marital status of sexual assault victims in the present study (78.7%) were single. 11,13 The fact that single individuals maintain more frequent social contacts with the outside world may account for the abuse of this behavior against the victim and the fact that some of the sexual crimes are still perpetrated with the aim of getting married (abduction, etc. ).…”

“…11,15,21 Consistent with a number of relevant studies on sexual crimes, sheltered areas such as houses are preferred as the crime scene, which is suggestive of the fact that perpetrators took advantage of the close relationship and sense of trust between the perpetrator and the victim. 8,13,14,20 Studies on male victims in France and Denmark showed that there was more than one perpetrator with the rates of 29% and 25%, respectively. 20,21 7,16,24,29 The diversity of sample populations may account for the difference between our study (3.5%) and other relevant studies.…”