Abstract
Sexual violence was a burning social issue even before the covid-19 pandemic. Global statistics suggest that during the covid-19 pandemic, the incidence of sexual violence has increased, as a result of strong restrictive measures such as reduced social contacts and the need to stay at home, often with an aggressor in the same household.
Crisis helplines and organizations involved in helping victims of sexual violence have also seen an increase in contacts during the covid-19 pandemic. For this reason, an anonymous online questionnaire survey was conducted for Czech adult women with the aim of collecting data which covers the area of sexual violence.
Data was collected during March 2020, when the first wave of a pandemic occurred in the Czech Republic, and during October 2020, when the second wave of a pandemic broke out. The research involved 250 women (both in partnerships and singles) who reported their experiences of sexual violence before the outbreak of the pandemic, in the first wave of the pandemic and in the second wave of the pandemic.
The questionnaire included questions on the frequency of individual acts (eg involuntary sexual activities, involuntary sending of erotic photos) as well as questions on whether the perpetrator was a close person or a stranger. The data have not been analyzed yet, so the final results will be presented at the conference.
ANOVA will be used for data analysis, in which the experiences of participants from three time periods will be compared: from the period before the pandemic (t0), during the first wave (t1) and during the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic (t2). The results will allow us to determine the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the possible increase in sexual violence and to monitor differences in specific time periods.
In the next part of the analysis, predictors and consequences of sexual violence against women during covid-19 pandemic will be analyzed.