Sexual Violence Victimization among Adolescent Males of Rural Varanasi

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Sexual violence occurs when a person is forced to unwillingly take part in sexual activity, these activity include forced sexual intercourse, touching in a sexual manner without consent (kissing, grabbing etc), forcefully showing pornographic material, exhibitionism, making unwelcome sexual jokes or comments etc. Rising incidence of rapes and sexual harassment are increasing concern in India and globally. A significant proportion of sexual violence victims are adolescents. Male victimization is relatively less discussed domain in sexual violence as compared to female and majority of cases go unreported. Objective: The purpose of present study was to find out prevalence and factors associated with sexual violence victimization among adolescent males in rural setting. Methods: A total of 510 males of age group 10-19 years were interviewed adopting a community based cross-sectional study design. Multistage sampling method was used to select the study subjects. Results: Out of total, 6.9% adolescents reported being forced for sexual intercourse at least once in their life time and 10% reported being victim of sexual violence other than sexual intercourse. Conclusion: Association between sexual violence and Age, Socioeconomic status and educational status were found statistically significant. Other factors like parent’s education, type of family, family size were not found to be significantly associated.