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full screen Children and young people who have been subjected to sexual violence have difficulty finding the right support, according to a report. Archive image. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT
Children and young people who have been subjected to sexual abuse have difficulty knowing where to turn for support. Often it also takes time before they get help, according to a new report.
There are five organisations, including Storasyster and ChildX, which have made a review of the types of support available to children and young people between the ages of 13 and 25 who have been exposed to sexual violence.
The conclusion of the report “The right support at the right time” is that the existing support system is fragmented, difficult to access and insufficient.
“As a society, we must collectively get better at developing help and support for sexual violence within and between different businesses and organizations,” says Cecilia Bödker Pedersen, general secretary at Storasyster, in a press release.
According to the report, every fourth student in the third year of high school has been sexually assaulted at some point. It is public activities such as youth clinics and health centers that are responsible for meeting the needs of children and young people who have been exposed to sexual violence. But there are major shortcomings in how non-profit and public actors work together, according to the report.
According to the report, it is often the victims themselves who have to look for the right help and then repeatedly have to tell about what happened and about their vulnerability.
Shame and guilt mean that many choose not to tell, and there is a lack of knowledge about sexual violence among children and young people today, which makes it difficult for them to respect their own and others’ boundaries.
Among other things, the organizations want to see more cooperation, increased information and better accessibility. The mapping has been done through, among other things, interviews, surveys and workshops.