Voldsutsatte barn og unge i Oslo. Forekomst og innsatsområder for forebygging

Summary

 
This report examines the extent and the manner of expression of experiences of violence and sexual assault amongst two different youth populations in Oslo. It is based on material from two different surveys: the questionnaire- based survey Ung Hubro, which was conducted by the public health authorities in 2000–2001 amongst 7307 pupils in class 10 (16-year-olds) at Oslo schools, and the questionnaire-based survey LUVO which was carried out by NOVA in 2007 amongst a nationally-representative selection of in all 7033 final-year sixth-form-college pupils, of whom 782 came from schools in Oslo. Two important themes in both surveys were the pupils’ experiences of violence and sexual assault. Data material from the two surveys cannot be directly compared because the selections differ in terms of selection criteria and age and because the questions asked in the two studies were not the same. Both studies are cross-sectional surveys which give us a picture of the extent of experiences of violence and sexual assault in the two different age groups at two different times (2000–2001 and 2007). If the two survey groups had been selected according to the same criteria and the questions had been identical, the two studies could have given us information about possible changes or consistent features in social conditions in terms of the extent of experiences of violence and sexual assault. Since conditions for such a comparison were not present we have chosen primarily to present the two surveys individually. To the degree we do make comparisons between the results of the two surveys, these results should be treated with great caution and it is not the case that the results of one survey can collaborate or refute the results of the other. 

The Oslo Youth Health Survey
In chapter I we present results from The Oslo Youth Health Survey. In this survey, conducted during the years 2000 – 2001, 7307 youths aged 15– 16 years participated. This report presents rates of exposure to violence and sexual abuse in the 12-month period before the survey, and associations between reported exposure to violence and socio-economic, geographic and individual characteristics. The following items from the questionnaire measured exposure to violence and sexual abuse:

Have you been subjected to violence (e.g. been hit, kicked etc.) during the last 12 months?

Have you during the last 12 months experienced sexual abuse (e.g. flashing, fondling, forced intercourse etc)?

• The prevalence of violence and sexual abuse was highest in Oslo and the three northern counties of Norway. Of the six counties surveyed, Oslo had the highest rate of violence committed by youths: 27 percent for boys (Schou, Dyb and Graff-Iversen 2007). Rates of youth violence were quite evenly distributed within Oslo. 

• The average prevalence of violence committed by adults in the six the counties surveyed was 3.9 percent, while 4.4 percent of the 10 -year (16-year-old) pupils in Oslo had experienced violence from adults in the preceding year. Violence by adults was distributed unevenly in the city, the highest prevalence being in the regions with the lowest average income (inner-city east and new eastern suburbs).

• On average, 6.1 percent of the girls and 1.6 percent of the boys in Oslo were exposed to sexual abuse in the preceding year. The prevalence of sexual abuse in Oslo was average compared with the other five counties surveyed, lower than the three northern counties and higher than the rural counties of Oppland and Hedmark (Schou, Dyb and Graff- Iversen 2007). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of sexual abuse between the different city districts in Oslo. 

• Gender was found to be an important factor in determining what kind of violence the youth had been exposed to, in Oslo as well as in the other counties. Boys were more often exposed to violence from other youth, and girls were more often exposed to sexual abuse. 

• Youth with disabilities, especially physical disabilities and impaired hearing, were more exposed to violence and abuse. 

• The associations between family and social factors and increased exposure to violence and sexual abuse found in Oslo were similar to those found in other parts of the country (Schou, Dyb and Graff- Iversen 2007). Youth who had parents with special problems – like mental health, substance abuse or economic problems – were more exposed to violence and sexual abuse than other youth, especially violence by adults.

• Boys who were immigrants or had parents who were immigrants, were less exposed to violence by youth than were Norwegian boys. Youths who were immigrants were more exposed to violence by adults, but those born in Norway with immigrant parents were not significantly more exposed than Norwegian youth. Girls with immigrant back- grounds were less often exposed to sexual abuse than Norwegian girls, while boys with immigrant backgrounds were exposed more often. 

The material presented in chapters 2 and 3 is taken from the LUVO survey. Here, a nationally-representative selection of about 7000 pupils from the third year of tertiary education answered a comprehensive questionnaire which dealt in particular with their experiences of violence and assault. One limitation with the restriction to pupils at the end of tertiary education is the probable loss of a greater number of pupils who had dropped out of tertiary education than if the selection had been taken from the first year of tertiary education or from the last year of secondary. This means that pupils with immigrant backgrounds and pupils with parents who have a low level of education are under-represented in our selection. Naturally, we cannot establish precisely what significance this has for the results given, but it is probable that a relatively-greater proportion of the pupils who drop out of school have more problems than those pupils who complete tertiary education, without it necessarily being the case that they would have reported more of the problems measured in this survey.

Exposure to violence
In this report we use the data material to cast light on the following question: are young people in Oslo more or less exposed than other young people to violence, to witnessing violence within their own family and to assault?  

We asked the young people whether they had witnessed violence against their own parents, limited to the home environment. The general picture that emerged was that very few young people in Norway have witnessed physical violence against one of their parents at home. In those cases where they had witnessed such events it was generally in relation to verbal abuse. The experiences of Oslo youth in this respect differ a little from those of other youth in that they more frequently had experienced their mother being verbally abused or threatened at home and that they a little more often reported that she had been exposed to mild violence. The proportion reporting that they had seen or heard a form of violence against their mother is higher in Oslo than in the rest of the country. Oslo youth also report more frequently than youth elsewhere in Norway that they witnessed serious violence against their father. But the difference between the reporting from Oslo youth and from those elsewhere in Norway is less evident in respect of the various forms of violence they have witnessed against their father.

A relatively high proportion of youth both in Oslo and elsewhere in Norway report that they have been subjected to verbal abuse from their mother and their father. That more than half of the young people both in Oslo and elsewhere in the country report such experiences can indicate that the level of conflict may be high in some of these families. There is a tendency to this being reported more often in Oslo, but the difference is small. When we look at the overall extent of various forms of physical violence reported by those surveyed, we observe that Oslo youth report such events somewhat more than youth elsewhere in Norway. 

Sexual assault and offence
When young people were asked about their experiences of sexual assault and offence, we asked whether they had experienced various types of actions and events that were relatively-concretely specified. In presenting the data we group the responses into three categories: indecent exposure, mild assault and serious assault. Mild assault concerns offences relating to groping and masturbation whilst serious assault comprises all other forms of unwanted sexual acts that involved some form of penetration. For all three categories, a slightly higher proportion of youth in Oslo report such experiences than is the case elsewhere in the country, but the difference is not great. What is at least as interesting and serious in this picture is that a relatively high proportion of youth in Oslo and in the rest of the country (14 and 12 percent respectively) report experiences of serious assault. 

Where we have been able to observe differences between Oslo youth and those in other parts of the country in terms of their reports of experiencing violence and sexual abuse, these display a similar pattern – that a slightly higher proportion of youth in Oslo report problematic experiences than is the case in the rest of the country. That the apparent differences are consistently in the same direction can be understood as indicating that some qualities of upbringing are shared by a proportion of Oslo youth and that these qualities are perhaps somewhat at variance with those experienced by youth elsewhere in Norway. The factors we have examined in the survey include immigrant background, family structure or who people live with, and family finances. 

A very high proportion of immigrants in Norway live in Oslo. This sector comprised 23 percent of Oslo’s population in 2006. The equivalent figure for the rest of the country was 8 percent. Youth were classified as immigrants in terms of the definition used by Statistics Norway (SSB); that is that both parents were born outside of Norway. Youth fulfilling this criterion were placed in one of the following categories: from another Nordic country, from another European country, from an Asian country, from an African country, from a South-American country, from a North-American country. These are broad categories, but as the survey was aimed at Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD), these were the categories we were obliged to use. 

Several surveys have indicated that income differences are greater in Oslo than in the rest of the country and that the proportion of low-income families is significantly higher in Oslo than elsewhere in Norway. In our survey, family finances were measured by answers to the question: "has your family been well off or badly off during the last two years?" Answers were placed in two categories: one category for those who replied "been well off" or "generally well off" and one category for those who replied neither well nor badly, generally badly or that it had varied greatly. 

The third category was concerns the people with whom the informant was living. In our material, Oslo youth are distinct from those elsewhere in the country in respect of the three categories described. The proportion of youth with immigrant background from Asia, Africa or South America is significantly higher in Oslo than elsewhere in the country. There is also a significantly higher proportion of Oslo youth who report that their family has a mediocre or poor financial state and a higher proportion of Oslo youth report that they do not live together with both their biological parents but with step-parents, with a lone parent, with one parent and a new partner or that they live equally divided between both parents. 

Immigrant background is significant for how the young people report experiences of violence and sexual assault. At the same time, we can see a clear gender distinction. Girls of non-immigrant background report most often violence from their mothers and the experience of sexual assault. Boys of immigrant background more often report physical violence from their parents than is the case with Norwegian boys. Girls of immigrant back- ground less frequently report physical violence from their parents than is the case with Norwegian girls. Boys of immigrant background more frequently report experiences of assault than is the case with Norwegian boys.

Both boys and girls who report a poor financial state in their own family seem to be more prone to violence and sexual assault than youth from better-off families, but the differences are relatively small and not statistically significant. The factors of immigrant background and family finances thus explain some of the differences in the picture of how experiences of assault and violence are distributed between boys and girls and within or outside Oslo. At the same time, we can also observe that gender has a clear influence on how such experiences are reported amongst youth. 

Certain other factors are also connected with a higher reporting of experiences of violence and sexual assault, irrespective of whether the young people live in Oslo or elsewhere in Norway. Those who had an early sexual debut (before 14 years), those who reported parents using drugs and those who had used narcotic substances such as hash more frequently reported experiences of violence from their own parents or experiences of sexual assault. We do not have a basis here on which to provide an explanation of this. It is likely that these experiences are interwoven and it would be difficult to isolate cause and effect. Although here, too, we find a slightly higher degree of reporting of experiences of violence and sexual assault amongst Oslo youth, the differences are small and it is in principle the same risk factors that apply whether the young person lives in Oslo or elsewhere. 

The survey also contained two sets of open questions, one of which concerned young people’s descriptions of unwanted sexual events and the other concerned their descriptions of experiences of witnessing violence at home against their mother or father. We asked the subjects, in those cases where they reported experiences of sexual assault or of witnessing violence against their own parents, to describe the events in their own words. About 800 of the 7000 informants answered the open questions, in the form of 983 descriptions. There is great variation in what and how they answered. Some of the answers were that the youth did not wish to say what had happened when they were subjected to assault or offence. Such answers can indicate that these young people have had difficult experiences, which is why they do not wish to describe them in more depth. Most of the descriptions were made by girls. There is a considerable variation in what kinds of events they regarded as offensive or as an assault. What all the descriptions have in common is an evident imbalance of relationships in one direction, this being that girls experience boys taking liberties. Even though the girls experience this as a problem, many of the descriptions contain an implicit understanding that this pattern of behavior is accepted by both parties. There is a clear absence of reciprocality in the actions described. Especially in what is termed boyfriend-girlfriend relationships there is a possible perception that they boy has a certain right of sexual access even if the girl does not want this at the time in question. She describes, for instance, that she was unable to say no because "I was his girlfriend". The most serious cases described of sexual offences and assaults actually occur within girlfriend-boyfriend relationships. A possible explanation of this is that the role gives the parties access to an intimacy that can easily be exploited by one of the parties. When the one party (which in our descriptions is most often a boy) takes matters into his own hands and carries out sexual acts on the basis of a possible perception of that this role provides legitimacy for, without any form of reciprocal agreement, the break in trust and the offence can be even greater for those who are subjected to such actions. The material also contains examples of a less concealed use of physical force and violence on the part of the boy to achieve sex, for instance that he threatens to "beat her up" if she does not submit to his demand for sex. As a rule, however, the exercise of power is more subtle or unclear and the process of giving way to sexual pressure is more gradual.

In the quantitative part of the survey, we found that a greater proportion of girls who were subjected to sexual assault reported a more comprehensive degree of compulsion than was the case amongst the boys. This difference was also expressed in the qualitative material. In some of the descriptions made by boys who had experienced unwanted sexual events, the element of force was even more unclear than in the girls’ descriptions. They sometimes report that they were involved in unwanted sexual acts; an the sequence of events can be interpreted as suggesting that the boy thinks he “should» have wanted to on account of being male. In retrospect, such events can appear as an offence to the boy. What many of the boys and girls who tell of offensive sexual experiences have in common is the absence of reciprocality and of a retrospective regret for what had taken place.

The qualitative material comprised as many as 1285 descriptions of events in which young people were witnesses to violence against their parents. As with the quantitative material, far more girls than boys told about events they witnessed. We interpret this as expressing that girls can be more sensitive about what they regard as violence against parents and that they are perhaps more conscientious than the boys in terms of reporting events they have witnessed. Girls report far more instances of "mild violence" against their mother than is the case with boys, as is also the case with mild violence against their father. The category "mild violence" is associated with many tales of verbal abuse and arguments in the home; in those instances where the father is subjected to violence there is sometimes a third person involved as the violent party. The material suggests that serious violence experienced by youth in the home affects mother to a greater degree than father – there are seven times more descriptions of such violence against mothers than against fathers. The material gives a clear picture that witnessing violence against a parent in the home is a fairly widespread phenomenon and that this can be a painful experience for the young people who witness it. In some cases, these narratives concern not only violence but also other problems, such as drugs, facing at least one of the parents and which also affect the daily life of the youth living with parents where this is an issue. 

Conclusion
The results of both surveys on which this report is based contribute to identifying some areas of future effort to help prevent Oslo youth from being subjected to violence, to witnessing violence against their parents and to having experiences with sexual assault. In the report we have observed that some features of upbringing can be associated with some of the reported experiences of assault and violence. This is the case with family finances, which seem to be particularly associated with reported experiences of violence, and with parental drug issues which seem to be particularly associated with experiences of violence and of sexual assault and offence. If we assume that these associations are relevant, this can suggest that relatively- general programs to improve family living conditions, such as measures to help reduce drug-related problems amongst parents, can be significant in reducing the extent of those problems on which we are focusing here. At the same time, parts of the qualitative material in the report give grounds for focusing on attitudes in youth culture in terms of the degree to which sexual acts are conducted by mutual agreement. It appears that boys in particular need to be more aware of their attitudes towards mutual agreement in sexual relationships: what this entails, how this kind of reciprocality can be shaped and what is the nature of the boy’s responsibility for becoming more aware of such attitudes. We can see that one way of approaching this would be to involve youth in conversations about what mutual agreement in sexual relationships involves, how young people can be or become clearer when they wish to be involved in sexual relations with a partner and how and when they can know that there is a mutual desire for this. A central element in such conversations must be a clarification of the meaning of respect and reciprocality. If such conversations are to have any effect, they must take place over an extended period in the context of schooling and at a time of life when the idea of being together sexually with another youth is or can be an immediate possibility.