Impacts of sexual violence on women's sexual health

Sexual violence is a widespread health issue that has broad impacts on women's lives. On a daily basis, many women live with the threat of sexual violence and fears for their safety that can limit their mobility and access to spaces. As sexual violence more often takes place in domestic spaces with known offenders, many women's most intimate and domestic lives are marked by the threat of sexual violence. A significant proportion of women have experienced childhood or adult sexual abuse or assault. For example, a meta-analysis of child sexual abuse prevalence rates showed that 18% of girls had experienced sexual abuse (Stoltenborgh et al., 2011). The World Health Organization (2013) found that 7.2% of women over the age of 15 had experienced non-partner sexual violence. In the United States, 21.3% of women had experienced rape or attempted rape as an adult or a child, and 43.6% had been subject to contact sexual violence (Smith et al., 2018). Although estimates of sexual violence vary, high prevalence rates point to sexual violence as a major public health problem globally.