14.5 percent of French women and 3.5 percent of French men report having been the subject of sexual violence at some point in their life according to a study done by the French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED).

The study was carried out in 2015 using a sample of 27,268 French people, most of whom were female, aged between 20-69. The study participants were questioned about rape, rape attempts and other forms of sexual violences which they may have been victims of.

Of the women who stated having been the target of rape or attempted rape, 40 percent reported that the incident occurred when they were younger than 15 years old, and 16 percent said it happened when they were aged between 15-17. In the case of men, the study highlighted that the majority of assaults took place when the victims were younger than 18.

The study also stressed that the number of people who have been victim of at a least a rape case or attempted rape amounts to 64,700, of which 62,000 are women and 2,700 men. Among these victims 27,600 females and 1,100 males reported being a victim of at least one rape case combined with a rape attempt. When other forms of sexual assaults such as forcible kissing and petting are included, a total number of 580,000 women and 197,000 men have been victims of sexual violence.

INED also notes that assaults occur more repeatedly when they take place in the private sphere of family and friends. 5 percent of women report having been victim of sexual violence at least once, and 1.6 percent have been the target of rape or attempted rape.

Relationships between couples and public space are the other living environments where rapes and rape attempts happen most commonly. More than 8 percent of women report having been the target of sexual violence in a public space.