Are you ok with that?
Actually, the figures are much worse: The above number comes from the UN and is based on police records from 80 countries in 2008 (as for the remaining 113 UN members you are allowed to wonder if they are serious about their membership). But that may just be the small tip of a gigantic iceberg: Researchers suggest that between 70% and 95% of all rape crimes are never reported. Taking the 70% estimate would mean that more than 1.3M women are raped or sexually assaulted each year. And very close to 100% of it done by men. Add to that domestic violence, harassment and other acts considered criminal and the scale of male aggression becomes staggering. If these “incidents” had a single pathological label, it would be the biggest entry in the the World Health Organization’s database. A rampant disease of sexual violence.
What’s wrong with us men?
I know that numbers on this issue are fraught with uncertainties, uneven data capture and reporting norms, giving rise to hot debates. Some (mostly women) say they are much bigger and others (mostly men) that women cry “rape” whenever it suits them. In the absence of quality data and tools, that discussion leads down the shouting-match alley, which, as we all know, is blind. A situation that ought to motivate some serious initiatives to at least produce better data.
Unfortunately the data capture and reporting effort seem to deteriorate: Over the past years the number of UN member states submitting their reports have dropped from 84 to 57. In 2010, less than a third of UN members cared to send any data at all. And that is not because sexual violence is on the decline. Quite the contrary: In 2009, 73 countries reported a total of 420.000 police recorded offenses while in 2010 (the most recent data), only 57 countries send their data, yet the total reached 373.000.
So who aren’t reporting? Read the rest …
