45% of Albertans report sex abuse
Survey shows 1.8 million victims, rate largely unchanged since 1984
Nearly half of all Albertans have experienced sexual abuse in their lifetimes, according to a study released Wednesday.
The research, headed by the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault
Services, found that 45 per cent of respondents had been sexually abused. That equates to almost 1.8 million Albertans in total, including about 325,000 who were sexually abused as children.
“Having a study like this come out is a huge thing to get the conversation going and help people understand what kind of issue we’re dealing with,” said Danielle Aubry, CEO of Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse.
“At tables for us, whether it’s a funding table or a policy table, we now have information that we’ve already known, updated, that we can utilize to say, ‘This is a reality. We see this every day in our offices. We see this with our clients and we need to start having a conversation about how we can be bigger and better at dealing with this issue.’”
The study was completed via a general population phone survey of 1,512 adult Albertans, who were asked about whether they had experienced types of sexual abuse ranging from having someone expose their sexual organs to them in a way that was unwanted to being forced to have sex without their consent.
The research marks the first new data on child sexual abuse rates in Canada since a 1984 federal inquiry on the topic.
The 1984 report found that 45 per cent of people living in Alberta and British Columbia had experienced sexual abuse — the same prevalence rate as found by the new survey.
The study found that women were twice as likely as men to have experienced sexual abuse.
Among respondents who had been sexually abused, 75 per cent had first been abused when they were under the age of 18.
Most reported experiences of child sexual abuse were perpetrated by a man known to the victim.
Ariane Campbell said these statistics didn’t come as a surprise to her because they reflected her own experience.
As a child, Campbell was sexually abused by her then-stepfather.
She recently pursued charges against her abuser, who was found guilty and received a four-year prison sentence.
For her, seeing the report is an experience that was validating but unsurprising.
“A lot of what was in the findings was exactly my story. I was sexually abused as a child, as well as as an adult,” Campbell said.
“This is a dirty little secret. It’s something no one wants to talk about. It’s very scary, it’s very traumatic.”
Campbell emphasized that more funding is needed for agencies like CCASA, as well as police departments.
Community and Social Services Minister Rajan Sawhney was at the event marking the release of the survey data.
She said providing more funding to sexual assault centres to the tune of $3.5 million per year was part of the United Conservative Party’s platform and that centres can still expect those funds.
“It was a little bit surprising to me to understand that the ratios haven’t changed a whole lot since 1984,” Sawhney said when asked about the report’s findings.
She added that her ministry will be looking into how to “better leverage the resources we have at hand” to address sexual abuse in Alberta.
CCASA received the same provincial funding in 2019 as it did in 2018. Aubry says she won’t know what funding to expect next year until she sees Alberta’s upcoming 2020 budget.
Aubry said she wasn’t surprised by the survey results but noted that due to population growth a steady prevalence rate means many more Albertans have experienced sex abuse than at the time of the 1984 study.
She hopes those who see the survey results can find comfort in knowing that programs exist to help them.
“So many children who are sexually abused, it happens in the privacy and the secrecy of the location it’s happening,” Aubry said. “It’s critical that people know they aren’t alone. This does happen to people and there are supports for you.”