More than 1 in 10 French women raped

PARIS: More than one in ten French women have been raped at least once, according to a study on sexual violence published Friday as the global abuse scandal widens. Twelve percent of the 2,167 women polled by the Fondation Jean Jaures think tank said they had suffered “sexual penetration with violence, constraint or surprise”, the legal definition of rape in France. Five percent said it had happened more than once. Of these, 31 percent said they were raped by their partner, 19 percent by someone else they know and only 17 percent by a stranger. Half of the victims were children or teens at the time of the attack, which took place at home in 42 percent of cases. Only 15 percent had filed an official complaint but many remained traumatised by the incident, as evidenced by the fact that a fifth of them had attempted suicide — four times the general rate among French women.