Sexual assaults perpetrated in groups are more hostile and violent than those committed by a single individual, and the more criminals involved in them, the younger their age tends to be. The Ministry of the Interior has studied this group sexual violence, of which it has investigated cases with up to 15 aggressors. 95.6% of sexual violence is committed by a single aggressor, 3% by two; and 1.4%, by three or more aggressors.
Given the great suffering that group sexual assaults cause to the victims and the “notable differences” observed in comparison to the violence exerted by an individual, the Secretary of State for Security has promoted an investigation to understand the particularities of this criminal phenomenon.
It’s about the study Sexual violence carried out in groups. Epidemiological analysis and criminological aspects in Spainprepared together with researchers from the Distance University of Madrid, the Research Center in Forensic and Security Sciences of the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Pontifical University of Comillas, the European University of Madrid, the University of Valencia, the University of Barcelona, the Carlos III University of Madrid and the Complutense University of Madrid.
The investigation, in which the National Police, the Civil Guard, the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Foral Police of Navarra have also participated, has analyzed 491 acts of group sexual violence in which 1,359 perpetrators participated against 525 victims.
Two attackers
The majority of these acts of group sexual violence involved two aggressors (60.9%), compared to 39.% in which three or more individuals participated.
The incidence decreases as the group size increases. Thus, in 19.7% of cases three aggressors participated; in 11.2%, four; in 4.7%, five; and in 2%, six and seven. Although incidents involving 15 perpetrators have been recorded, attacks involving more than five criminals are uncommon.
In 17.3% of group sexual assaults, four or more perpetrators participated against one victim, events “where the simple disproportion between the number of perpetrators and victims already accentuates the vulnerability in which these victims find themselves.”
One of the conclusions of the study is that the more aggressors, the younger they are. The cases in which eight or ten perpetrators participated only involved boys under 18 years of age.
Almost all of these sexual offenders who act in groups are men (only 1.2% of the perpetrators were women), while the victims are mostly women (92.8%).
young age
Interior highlights that age is a very important variable in these crimes, since it is lower than that recorded in other crimes in general and in others of a sexual nature in particular.
Both aggressors and victims are young, with averages of 23.8 and 23.4 years, respectively. One in three victims were minors, as were a third of the perpetrators – whose age is known. “Most of the cases were concentrated in perpetrators up to 20 years old and victims up to 23 years old,” says Interior.
Groups of three or more aggressors tend to be younger, often teenagers, and carry out attacks of greater duration and severity, using more physical and verbal violence, according to the study.
In these group attacks, the age of the victim and aggressors is usually similar; in more than half of the cases the age difference was limited to two years and when the victim was younger, the perpetrators were also younger in 60% of the cases. crimes.
The aggressors knew the victim in 37.2% of the cases, in 54.1% they were strangers.
More violence
Violence, both physical and verbal, is very present in group sexual violence: it exists in 80% of cases. Almost half of group sexual assaults involved penetration and violence (48.3%); 36.9% assault with violence without rape and 14.9%, rape without physical violence.
“Perpetrators who act in groups use more violence. 85.9% of minor perpetrators used some type of violence compared to 74.6% in the case of adults,” says the study.
Six out of ten attacks occur in a home or hotel or on public roads (29.7% and 29.5%, respectively); 12.8%, in parks or open fields and 1.8%, in educational centers.
The research indicates that these events are related to recreational and leisure contexts, mainly at night. The majority were concentrated on weekend days (47.9%) and summer is the time in which the most group attacks were recorded (32.2%), followed by spring (27%).
In four out of every ten cases analyzed, the aggressors had consumed substances and in 13.4% the victims were in a state of helplessness motivated by chemical submission.
The research also studies the variable of disability: present in 5% of the victims and 4.3% of the aggressors.
Regarding nationality, 43.3% of aggressors were foreigners, 32.7% were Spanish and the origin of 24% was unknown. However, if we focus on the minors, 61.5% were Spanish and 38.5% had another origin.
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