Are England and Wales facing a student rape crisis?
Despite a concerted push for social change, sexual assault figures among teenagers is still alarmingly high
The last two years have marked a fundamental shift in the discourse surrounding sexual assault in the western world. From the time of the first allegations emerging against Harvey Weinstein, the self- described ‘#MeToo era’ has forced many industries to grapple with a culture of sexual harassment that has lingered below the surface, unchecked for decades.
The momentum for this change has, in part, been maintained by a connected and politically mobilised young generation of activists who’ve kept debate alive in the public consciousness. From the Women’s Marches of 2017 to university groups such as Revolt Sexual Assault, Millennials and Generation Z have worked hard to force institutional change.
However, a comprehensive study by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) suggests that this cultural shift has not been unilateral, and that students and young people are those most vulnerable to sexual assault.
As part of a review of sexual assault and criminal rehabilitation by the Office for National Statistics, the CSEW examined instances of sexual rape and sexual assault across England and Wales based on disclosure, rather than police reports. As only around 1 in 7 cases of rape and sexual assault reach prosecution stage, this survey aims to paint a more compressive picture of sexual assault across England and Wales.
Overall, the study estimated that just over 2% of the population aged 16–59 have been victims of some form of sexual assault in the two year period between March 2016 and March 2018. However, amongst this, the survey also found that men and women between the ages of 16 and 19 were the most likely to be sexually assaulted. This was not just with regards to a particular type of incident either; from rape to unwanted touching and indecent exposure, 16–19 year olds consistently ranked as the most likely victims.
More strikingly, when the survey expanded to examine instances of rape and sexual assault across a victim’s lifetime, it found that 44% of victims had been sexually assaulted between the ages of 16 and 19; nearly double any other age bracket.
This data appears to run countercyclical to expectations. Despite a shift in the public discourse surrounding rape and sexual assault, it initially appears that this has yet to translate into a shift in behaviour.
This is further supported by Revolt Sexual Assault’s own research, who found that 62% of the students and graduates they surveyed had experienced some form of sexual violence, with only 15% of those reporting such incidents to the police. Further to this, only 2% of those surveyed felt satisfied with the reporting process itself.
CSEW’s own data reflects this, and shows that those aged 16–19 were also the least likely to tell police and health professionals about the incident, at 13% and 15% respectively. This runs countercyclical to a general public perception that younger people are more aware of, and therefore more likely to, report sexual assault. Here, social factors play a key role, with 44% of respondents who failed to report a rape or sexual assault saying they did so out of embarrassment.
Other social factors may also play a role; a meta-analysis conducted by American psychologists Katherine Miller and Laura Wilson in 2015 found that in 60% of cases, female rape survivors were unable to acknowledge the fact that they’d been raped. The analysis concluded that this was in part due to a lack precise understanding with regards to what constituted rape and sexual assault.
One of the key aims of the #MeToo movement has been to increase awareness around sexual offences at less overt levels, such as inappropriate touching and sexually inappropriate behaviour. Here, 16–19 year olds are nearly 10x more likely to report that they’d been victims of such behaviour than those aged 25 or over. This clearly suggests to some extent a greater awareness of what constitutes sexual assault among younger demographics.
Despite this, there is clearly an underlying issue of sexual assault amongst England and Wales’ young people. Groups like Revolt are working hard at the upper edge of this demographic to force cultural change at an intuitional level, with Cambridge University admiring it had a “significant problem” with sexual assault. However, the data shows that the exposure cannot stop here, and that more must be done to protect those 16–19 year olds who’re most vulnerable, as well as changing the culture around sex and consent for young people.
Whilst we’re still in the early days of the #MeToo era, there are early signs that, despite everything, change is coming.
