Is India the rape capital of the world? Think again

The rate of rape in India is low, even factoring a high degree of under-reporting. But disappointingly, so is the rate of conviction of rapists.

First of all to be clear by all chances I’m not supporting rape or propagating the idea of rape it’s just a POV from my side as an average Indian we have been listening that girls are not safe in India, in abroad they are a lot safer than India and the foreign media for years have been bad mouthing about India regarding to rapes. But reality is something different from what we all hear from social media. To say the least here are some words from Women’s right lawyer Flavia Agnes “The foreign media always describe India has having the maximum number of rapes, but this is not true.”

The challenge tracking down truthful statistics

Accurate statistics regarding rape are notoriously difficult to obtain. The biggest complication is that most victims of sexual violence choose not to report it. There are many reasons for this decision- embarrasment, victim sharing, fear of reprisal from the rapist and even fear how the victim’s own family will react to all this. Also, in many countries especially in India law’s against sexual violence are insufficient, inconsistent, not regularly enforced or takes many years in the court to take a final judgement. In many cases situation like this make victim convinced that getting to law for help will do no good and make situation even more worse.

Countries with the highest number of rape rates

1. South Africa

With an estimated 500,000 rape cases every year, the country has the highest rate of rapes in the world. It is estimated that more than 40% of South African women will be raped in their lifetime. The majority of sexual violence is against women, but men and children are also subjected to this crime. According to a report, above 4% of men have been forced to have sex with other men. According to South African Police, children are victims of 41% of all reported rape cases. About 15% of rape victims are children under the age of 11.5.

2. Sweden

Sweden now has the second highest number of rapes in the world, after South Africa, which at 53.2 per 100,000. Statistics now suggest that 1 out of every 4 Swedish women comes out to be the victim of rape. If you look at the number of rapes, however, the increase is even worse. In 1975, there were only 421 rapes reported to the police — in 2014, it was 6,620. That is an increase of 1,472%. It would seem Sweden is a much more dangerous place for women in the world. In addition, Sweden has the highest rate of rape in Europe.

3. USA

According to George Mason University, Worldwide Sexual Assault Statistics, 1 in 3 American women will be sexually abused during their lifetime. About 19.3% of women and 2% of men have been raped at least once in their lives. Additionally, an estimated 43.9% of women and 23.4% of men experienced other forms of sexual violence during their lifetimes. Many victims of sexual abuse were victimized at a young age, about 79% were first raped before age 25, and 40% before age 18. Acc. to RAIN, every 107 seconds, someone in the united states is sexually assualted.

4. England and Wales

Approximately 85,000 victims of rape per year in England and Wales — 73,000 females and 12,000 males, equating to about 230 cases every day. The report stated that 1 in every 5 women has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.

5. India

Rape and Sexual violence is a massive problem in India. Approximately 33,707 victims if rapes per year are reported. The majority of rape victims are between 18 years and 30 years. About one out of three victims is below 18, and one in ten rape victims is under 14. In India, a woman is being raped after every 20 minutes. New Delhi has the highest number of reported rape crimes among Indian cities. Last year, on average four rape cases each day were reported in the city.

Real rape rate

Not making the theory too long for the readers the next few countries include New Zealand, Australia, Zimbabwe, Canada, Denmark and Finland. These countries are marked highest by taking their geographical area in consideration and estimation, as if we consider real rape rate that is calculated by rapes divided by total population many countries which names you don’t ever heard will be topping the list because of their small population due to their small geographical size. (Botswana, Lesotho, Grenada, Eswatini, etc).

Why country-to-country comparisons of rape statistics are so difficult

Another confounding issue when compiling and comparing global rape statistics is that the legal definition of rape can vary from one country to the next. The methods used to count rapes can also vary significantly. These differences include, but are not limited to:

• Some countries consider any non-consensual sex to be rape. Others classify a sexual assault as rape only when it exceeds a certain threshold of violence.
• Some countries acknowledge spousal rape. Others do not.
• Some countries count any report of rape. Others count only those incidents that proceed to a legal trial.
• Some countries include non-consensual, and sometimes also consensual, sex with a minor — typically classifed as statutory rape — in their rape totals. Other countries place any sex with a minor, consensual or not, into a separate category.
• Some countries confine the definition of rape to forced vaginal penetration during sexual intercourse only. Others consider any unwarranted penetration of the mouth, anus, or vulva with any body part or object to be rape.
• Some countries track only male-on-female rape. Others also track female-on-female, female-on-male, and male-on-male rape.
• Some countries count each individual assault that occurs between the same people (for instance, a child and a relative, or a man and his arranged fiancée) as its own separate incident. Others add all of the incidents together and count them as a single rape.
• Similarly, some countries count gang rapes as a single incident regardless of how many individuals participated. Others count gang rapes as multiple incidents (one per participant, minus the victim or victims).