Figures in brief

Diverse background

Regardless of the type of sexual victimisation experienced, victims who sought services at RainLily are diverse in demographic background, with their ages ranging from 4 to 85 years. The mean age of victims is 28.00 (Standard Deviation (SD) = 10.63). In terms of education level, 68.5% of victims have received senior secondary education or above. The majority of victims are Hong Kong residents (92.0%). The following tables show the basic information of victims categorised by age, education level and residential status.

The results also showed that there is a significant difference regarding victim-perpetrator relationships amongst the three types of sexual victimisation cases. In rape cases, peers or friends (36.3%) had the highest likelihood of committing rape. In indecent assault cases, the assault was most likely committed by a parent, sibling or relative (26.7%). For sexual harassment cases, a work acquaintance (51.2%) had the highest likelihood of committing sexual harassment. Such results implied that the victim-perpetrator relationship was a significant factor in the type of sexual violence committed in the victimisation process.

In terms of types of sexual violence, RainLily's services database contains the records of 3,611 sexual victimisation cases, comprising 2,318 rape cases (64%), 1083 indecent assault cases (30%) and 210 sexual harassment cases (6%).

In addition, a significant difference was found regarding the residence status of victims and perpetrators amongst the three types of sexual victimisation. Victims of indecent assault cases were more likely to be sharing a residence with the perpetrator than victims of rape and sexual harassment cases: 18.0% of indecent assault victims shared a residence with the perpetrator, but only 13.0% of rape victims and only 10.5% of sexual harassment victims were reported as co-residing with the perpetrator.

The results further found that there is even a significant difference regarding the location of the incident between the three types of sexual victimisation. Both rape and indecent assault were most likely to be committed within residential premises (in 61.5% of the total rape cases and 45.2% of indecent assault cases respectively). However, sexual harassment was most likely to be committed in the workplace (43.1% of sexual harassment cases).

Delayed reporting

Whilst delayed reporting is common to victims of sexual violence cases, the results from statistical test further showed that there is a significant difference regarding the duration of the delay in reporting the incident amongst the three different types of sexual victimisation (rape, indecent assault and sexual harassment). Of the three, the duration of the delay in reporting was longest for victims of indecent assault, with a mean duration 2454.99 days. Victims of rape ranked as second longest in terms of delayed reporting, with a mean duration of 959.44 days. Victims of sexual harassment were found to be most prompt in reporting the case, with a mean delay in reporting of 633.93 days.

Only around half of sexual violence victims (1,818 in total, or 50.3%) reported their case to law enforcement agencies. In terms of the different types of sexual victimisation, more than half of total rape victims (55.7%) made a report, but less than half of indecent assault victims (42.1%) chose to report the case. Even worse, only 33.8% of sexual harassment victims chose to report their victimisation. The statistical results suggest that the decision by the victim to report the case or not was also significantly related to the type of sexual victimisation experienced, namely that rape victims were most likely to report the case to law enforcement agents while victims of sexual harassment were least likely to do so.

Moreover, of the 1,818 cases reported to law enforcement, only 39.7% were passed to the Department of Justice for potential legal action. More than half of these cases (59.4%) were abandoned after the police decided to terminate their investigation. Excluding cases with missing values/records, one major reason was insufficient evidence to continue the investigation (which amounted to 41.2% of the abandoned cases), whilst another major reason was the withdrawal of the complaint by the victim (which amounted to almost one-third of the abandoned cases).

Of the 722 cases passed to the Department of Justice, 48.5% of cases proceeded to trial, whilst in 51.5% of cases the Department of Justice decided not to prosecute. Eventually, only 221 cases resulted in convictions, with charges including rape, indecent assault, battery and false imprisonment.

Underage sexual violence

There are significant differences underlying the sexual victimisation experiences of underage victims and victims aged 16 or above. Looking at types of sexual victimisation, the most common form of incident was rape for both groups of victims, followed by indecent assault and then harassment. Yet, it is worth noting that underage victims were at a greater likelihood of suffering from indecent assault compared to victims aged 16 years or above. 45.1% of all sexual victimisation incidents for underage victims were perpetrated by a parent, sibling or relative, which was a significantly higher rate than victims aged 16 or over (5.8%). In line with such result, underage victims were found to be more likely to be co-residing with the perpetrator.

The duration of the delay in reporting an incident was also found to be significantly longer for underage victims than for victims aged 16 or above. The mean delay in reporting was 4813.58 days for underage victims, whereas the mean duration was 443.87 for victims aged 16 or above. The statistical results showed that underage victims also tended to be less likely to report the case to law enforcement compared with other victims. In short, the statistical results suggest that there are significant differences between underage victims and victims aged 16 or above regarding their experience of sexual victimisation.

Although 'being young' does not necessarily result in higher risk of becoming a victim of sexual violence according to the statistical analysis in previous chapters, it does play a crucial role in shaping the victimisation experience of victims.

Delayed reporting of underage victims
The study also highlights that victims under the age of 16 in average delay their reporting for assistance for 4,814 days (approx. 13.2 years), the duration is ten times the average for victims above 16 years old (444 days, or approx. 1.2 years).

Conclusion and Suggestions

In considering the key causes underlying the prevalence of sexual violence, this study highlights the need to acknowledge the crucial role of gender-related socio-cultural factors which underpin the phenomenon of sexual violence, rather than the personal characteristics of individual victims. The problem of sexual violence against women must be understood as conditioned by the asymmetric power relations between men and women in all aspects in society, especially in the realms of family, intimate relationships and work. Moreover, the sociological differences between women must be examined, as more vulnerable and socially-disadvantaged groups of women (for example those underage or diagnosed with an intellectual disability) may find themselves subjected to increased subordination and marginalisation in coping with sexual violence.

To tackle sexual violence in Hong Kong and to serve the specific needs of victims from diverse backgrounds, we present the following recommendations:

1. Enhance the services for victims post-crisis to ensure a full recovery. The implementation of a hospital-based one-stop crisis centre would allow victims to reach different social agents (e.g. medical, legal and counselling specialists) in one location, and is essential to achieve this end. At the very least, the government should set up a crisis centre in at least one public hospital in each of the New Territories, on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon. Moreover, the provision of post-crisis long-term support services (e.g. counselling post-trial) is also vital to help victims recovering from trauma.

2. Improve procedures to encourage reporting to police by victims. Not only would the formation of a specialised team to handle sexual violence cases better serve the needs of victims, but also the provision of regular professional training (especially gender sensitivity training) and re-assessment of reporting procedures would help to ensure the quality of legal support services and encourage reporting by victims.

3. Eliminate the culture and myths concerning sexual assault and promote non-violent and non-coercive interpersonal relationships. Distinguishing fact from myths is crucial to formulating appropriate measures to eliminate sexual violence. Equally important is raising awareness of the importance of establishing healthy interpersonal relationships.

4. Promote education regarding gender equality and sexual assault awareness, and adapt the current curriculum, methods and targets. Education on gender equality and how to establish healthy, non-violent sexual relationships is key to fighting sexual violence. Whilst gender and sex education should be made compulsory at primary and secondary school level, the contents must encompass a wider scope of related topics, such as appropriate responses to inappropriate sexual advances, the development of healthy intimate relationships, and understanding sexual consent.

5. Reform legislation concerning sexual offences. Some of the laws relating to sexual crimes are out of date and revisions are urgently needed to adequately protect the rights of sexual violence victims. Moreover, it is also necessary to improve protective measures for victims during trial.