World Health Organization identifies a wide range of sexual violence acts, which includes but not limited to:
  • Rape within dating relationships, marriages or by strangers.
  • Unwanted sexual advances or sexual harassment, including demanding sex in return for favours.
  • Sexual abuse of children.
  • Forced marriage or cohabitation, including child marriage.
  • Denial of the right to use contraception or to adopt other measures to protect against sexually transmitted diseases.
  • Forced abortion.
  • Violent acts against the sexual integrity of women, including female genital mutilation and obligatory inspections for virginity.
  • Forced sex work and human trafficking for sexual exploitation.
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SEXUAL ABUSE
Sexual abuse can be physical, verbal and/or emotional. It is often a continuing abuse of power (e.g. One person has more authority over the other, like a parent-child, teacher-student andadult-teenager). The abuser uses another person for his or her sexual pleasure.


SEXUAL ASSAULT
Sexual assault refers to any unwanted actions that are of a sexual nature that make the victim feel frightened or hurt them in some way.


SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Sexual violence occurs when someone does not give her/his consent for a sexual act. It is a crime, and includes rape, incest, child sexual abuse, date rape and sexual harassment.


Picture
http://childsexualabuseinindia.blogspot.my/
Everyone has the right to feel safe all the time. If someone is making you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, then it could be sexual abuse. So, what might be happening? It could involve:
  • Having parts of your body touched in a sexual way.
  • Being kissed inappropriately, in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable.
  • Being told to touch parts of your own body in front of the abuser.
  • Being made to touch parts of another person's body.
  • Being made to watch someone masturbate or touch their own body in a sexual way.
  • Being made, by coercion or physical force, to act or model for pornographic purposes, or to watch pornographic material.
  • Being watched while showering or changing.
  • Putting objects (including penis and fingers) in the anus or mouth, and vagina.
  • Making you have sex, or do sexual things with other people (rape).
  • Making sexual comments and suggestions to you.
  • Sending sexual comments or suggestions to you via SMS/email or social media.



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Myths and facts about sexual abuse

No
Myths
Facts
1
Women seduce men to sexually abuse them by dressing a certain way or by leading them on.
People may experience sexual abuse no matter what they were wearing or how they were acting; what the victim was wearing in no way makes she/he responsible for the abuse. No one wants to be abused, deserves to be abused and asks to be abused. Sexual abuse does not occur because of uncontrollable sexual desire, rather they feel entitled to other people’s bodies and disrespect other people’s right to consent.
2
​If people didn’t want sexual abuse to happen, they would have said something or fought back. It must have been consensual since there are no bruises or other physical evidence of violence.
​When people encounter life threatening danger, they respond in fight, flight or freeze. In extremely fearful situations, many people were shocked and froze, thus unable to fight back. Some researchers believe that half of the sexual violence victims experienced ‘freeze’ during an assault. A victim who freezes during a sexual violence episode does not mean that she/he is agreeable to the assault. 
3
Most rapists are strangers to their victims.
Unfortunately, most sexual abuses are committed by someone the victim knows or even loves - a roommate, friend, family member, acquaintance, co-worker, classmate, spouse, teacher, partner, or ex-partner. Knowing one’s perpetrator can be especially distressing to the survivors, as the trust that they had on someone been betrayed.
4
​When someone says no to sex, you should just keep asking until she/he says yes.
​Compelling someone into having sex, means that sexual behaviour is not mutually agreed. Consent of having sex must be given voluntarily and cannot be obtained through coercion or force. Importantly, people can withdraw consent at anytime - if you’re having sex with someone and she/he tells you to stop in between, you should.
5
If someone becomes physically aroused, reaches orgasms and/or ejaculates when she/he are assaulted, then it is not really sexual abuse.
​Having orgasm does not mean that someone enjoyed the abuse, or she/he wanted it. Orgasm is a natural biological reaction to sexual stimulation that cannot always be voluntarily controlled; it does not mean that forced or coerced sexual activity was wanted by the survival.