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Revista Colombiana de Obstetricia y Ginecología
Print version ISSN 0034-7434On-line version ISSN 2463-0225
Abstract
MORENO-CUBILLOS, Carmen Leonor; OSORIO-GOMEZ, Luz Stella and SEPULVEDA-GALLEGO, Luz Elena. Sexual violence against students of Caldas University (Colombia): cross sectional study. Rev Colomb Obstet Ginecol [online]. 2007, vol.58, n.2, pp.116-123. ISSN 0034-7434.
Sexual violence in Colombia has led to many legal regulations and has become one of the Ministry of Social Protections high-priority points of attention. Objective and methodology: this was a cross-sectional study aimed at establishing the frequency of sexual violence against 950 female undergraduate students attending the Caldas University by using anonymous and voluntary questionnaires (2,993 females were enrolled for 14 courses during the first academic period in 2004). Results: 298 students from ten academic programmes filled in the questionnaires. 55 (18.4%) of the forms reported one or more violent events (sexual harassment and rape) during the entire time spent at university. The events were independently analysed, 84 cases of sexual harassment and 8 cases of rape being reported. 47.3% of the cases had happened during the first year of university life. As for the place of occurrence, 52.1% happened inside the University, the most frequent place being the classroom (16.3%). The aggressor was most frequently identified as being a teacher (26.1% of cases). Harassment was most frequently qualified as being slight or verbal in 32 cases (34.8%). Three out of the 8 rape cases happened during the first year of university life, 2 of them in the universitys bathrooms and 2 in the aggressors home. Students from the Physical Education, Nursing and Veterinary Medicine programmes reported the most independent cases (in descending order). Conclusion: sexual violence is a phenomenon which is not foreign to a university setting and it appears in all its forms, from harassment verbal to rape, however, until now, the problem has not been assumed a high profile within Caldas University.
Keywords : sexual harassment; rape; students.