Violent Sexual Behaviors Against Teenage Girls Surged High at Home, School, Online During Lockdown

Recent statistics of teenage girls victimized in sexual assaults and abuse are alarming.

Almost 20 percent of high-school teenage girls, both from private and public schools admitted to having been victims of violent sexual behaviors in the year 2021, according to a new Youth Risk Behavior Survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Youth (CDC). More than one out of 10 were raped.

There was a significant increase of nearly 200,000 young girls that were forced into sex from 2019 to 2021. The former year had an estimated count of 850,000 girls who reported they had been raped, and the latter soared to over a million.

Thus, as the survey further revealed, young women in America are experiencing unparalleled grief, suicidal thoughts, and hopelessness due to sexual attacks and other traumatic incidences in their lives now more than ever.

Home is not always a safe haven

Dr. Debra Houry, CDC's chief medical officer, stated that she was downhearted by the surge in numbers. Yet, she was not surprised as sexual abuse has been a "pervasive problem" among young girls in the United States for quite some time.

The figures just showed how much progress the country and the government were unable to make, she declared.

The study discovered that young boys are also being raped. However, the percentage, which is four, has not changed since 2011.

The survey did not ask the teens how or where the attacks happened. Though it is known that most often, sexual assaults occur in schools, it could not be denied that from 2020 to 2021, most teens were out of school and locked down at home due to COVID-19.

Thus, it can be concluded that home is not always a safe place for young ones.

Cybersexual violence also dramatically grew during the pandemic as kids spent a dramatic increase of time online, Yahoo News reported. Isolation from friends, classmates, teachers, and people they seek help or advice from have also caused their vulnerability to violence.

According to Dr. Elizabeth Miller, violence prevention researcher and director of adolescent and young adult medicine at UPMC, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, when there's a "whirling disruption" in the lives of children, that breaks their safety nets, the risk to be exposed to all sorts of violence rises.

'Underestimates'

Seventeen-year-old high school senior Ellie Hinkle of Charlotte, North Carolina, however, believes that the recent statistics are "underestimates," as many young people are still not coming forward to admit sexual attacks and abuse due to fear.

Executive director of the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault Emily Miles confirmed Hinkle's statement, stating that there are "incredibly loud voices also on the other side" that condemn and torment survivors when they do come forward and tell their stories.

Houry, who has also researched sexual violence, boldly declared that these girls should not be blamed.

The statistics may have disheartened sexual violence experts, but they are not losing hearts.

"Our children are not broken. With the right support, us all pulling together to say our young people deserve more, and that we have the resources, the love and the intention to do right by our young people, they will bounce back," Miller told NBC News.