One out of every ten men in Spain admits to having had some sexual violence conduct against minors

BarcelonaOne in ten men in Spain acknowledges having engaged in some form of sexual conduct against children or adolescents at some point in their life. This is one of the conclusions of a nationwide study conducted by the University of Barcelona (UB) based on surveys of 6,010 adult men residing in Spain. The research, which distinguishes between sexual attraction and sexual violence behaviors, shows that 22.2% of participants state they have felt "some degree of sexual attraction toward people under 16 years of age" since they reached adulthood, without this implying that they have had any contact. Conversely, up to 10.2% of the adult men in the study acknowledge having engaged "at least once in their life" in some form of sexual violence behavior involving people under 18 years of age. Furthermore, 3% of the men in the sample have reported some of these behaviors in the last year.

These figures are not crime or conviction rates, but rather the study collects "self-reported" behaviors, with or without physical contact, in both real-world and digital environments. In cases where the sexual behavior involves adolescents aged 16 and 17, the research only counts them when there is an age difference of at least ten years with the respondent. Therefore, consensual sexual relationships between people of similar ages are excluded from the statistics, even if one is a minor.

Still regarding sexual behaviors of adult men with minors, when the analysis is restricted to children and adolescents under 15 years of age, the prevalence of this behavior is 2.8%. In the case of children under 12 years of age, the percentage is 1.7%. Despite the forcefulness of the data, the authors of the studyFrom prevalence to prevention: sexual attraction and violence against children and adolescents, conductedby the Research Group on Child and Adolescent Victimization at the UB, warn that "the estimates should be read as conservative," since as these are "highly stigmatized" behaviors, it is expected that they are underreported.

70% of those who feel attracted do not admit to any behavior

Beyond the sexual behaviors perpetrated, two out of every ten participants (22.2%) declare that they have felt some degree of sexual attraction toward people under 16 years of age since reaching adulthood. In the majority of cases, this is an infrequent attraction, as 12.3% say they feel it "almost never." In contrast, 1.9% state that they experience it "most of the time or almost always." Finally, attraction "exclusively toward minors" is admitted by 0.3% of the adult men in the study.

Although the study points out that those who declare this attraction present a significantly higher probability of reporting sexual violence behaviors, the research also highlights that 72.8% of men who declare sexual attraction toward people under 16 years of age do not report any sexual violence behavior against childhood or adolescence.

The UB study presented this Tuesday in Madrid is framed within the international Prevention Global program, in collaboration with the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins University (United States).