She was four years old when everything first happened. And she didn't tell anyone - not then, not later. She didn't know that what was happening to her was violence, she just felt ashamed. Her story is no exception.
In the country where sexual abuse children still too often swept under the rug, new data reveal the frightening extent of the silence and systemic cover-up. Almost a thousand survivors from the Serbian-speaking area testified about the abuse they experienced in childhood, and half of them had never told anyone their own story before.
These data are part of a report that brings together the experiences of 977 people from the Serbian-speaking area, and which raises questions about silence, systemic neglect, and the invisible consequences that victims of violence carry throughout their lives.
The research, the results of which "Vreme" had access to, was conducted by the non-governmental organization Protect Children.
The data was collected as part of the "Our Voice" global survey of survivors, in the period from August 14, 2023 to May 5, 2025.
The majority of victims were between three and nine years old
All survey participants, 977 of them, survived sexual violence in childhood, and most often at a very early age - between the ages of three and nine (48 percent). In addition, a quarter reported that the sexual abuse began when they were between 10 and 12 years old.
One percent of the research participants were up to two years old when they experienced sexual abuse, 18 percent of them were between 13 and 15 years old, while eight percent were between 15 and 17 years old.
"It started with comments about sex, showing off." pornographic content and inappropriate touches, a year later alone raped", is the answer of one respondent who experienced sexual abuse for the first time when she was between seven and nine years old.
Someone famous
In as many as 89 percent of cases, the perpetrator was a person known to the child - often a family member or someone from the immediate environment, whether from the social environment, the community or someone else who was close to them, with 19 percent living in the same household as the perpetrator.
As many as 96 percent of survivors stated that the perpetrator was a man, while 38 percent stated that the perpetrator was between 35 and 54 years old. In 32 percent of cases, the perpetrator was over 55 years old.
It is worrying that almost every third survivor stated that the perpetrator was under the age of 18, which indicates sexual abuse among peers, and abuse by siblings, according to the research results.
Silence
Disclosing sexual violence is an important but difficult step for survivors, often hindered by barriers such as feelings of shame, lack of courage, the belief that disclosure would not help or that the violence was not that serious, according to the research.
He is rarely and hardly talked about.
One out of two survivors who participated in the research (50 percent) never revealed to anyone that they experienced sexual violence in childhood.
More than one-third of survivors reported that not disclosing sexual violence affected their healing process, causing consequences such as depression, anxiety, fear of intimacy, deep feelings of shame and guilt, emotional repression, trust issues and anger.
Of those who disclosed childhood sexual violence, 51 percent disclosed to a parent, 38 percent to a friend, and 27 percent to a partner.
However, it took many years, and even decades, before they were able to trust.
Slightly less than a third of the people who shared their experience in the survey said that they spoke about the violence immediately after the experience, 13 percent dared to speak about it in the year after the violence, while as many as 14 percent of the respondents shared the story with someone for the first time after more than two decades after the violence happened.
The vast majority of survivors reported that their disclosures did not result in a police investigation, prosecution, or compensation of any kind.
Long-term consequences
Sexual violence against children has serious and long-lasting consequences for victims and survivors. As many as 63 percent of the victims stated that they suffered emotional, physical and psychological consequences due to the sexual violence they experienced in childhood.
The most common long-term consequences are difficulties in establishing and maintaining personal relationships, anxiety disorders and panic attacks, sexual dysfunction, depression, lower adaptability and an unstable lifestyle.
Despite these profound consequences, a significant number of victims (74 percent) reported that they did not receive the support they needed to deal with the long-term consequences.
What are the institutional data?
In Serbia, according to data from the Initiative to Combat Sexual Violence Against Children - Incest Trauma Center from Belgrade, 478 survivors of sexual violence requested help in the period from 2022 to 2023, of which 87 percent were girls and women.
Among them, 36 percent were children and minors under the age of 18. In nine out of ten cases, the perpetrator was a person known to the child — usually a family member or someone from the immediate environment.
Additional data from public health institutions from 2023 indicate dozens of additional cases of suspected sexual abuse of children, with girls making up almost 80 percent of the victims.
Experts estimate that for every reported case there are a large number of those who remain hidden, because most victims delay reporting or never decide to speak about it.
Photos that say what children could not
Photo: Justice InitiativeSilence through photographs
Award-winning Italian photographer, psychologist and journalist Simone Padovani, through photography shows the poignant stories of people who experienced abuse in childhood or youth.
The exhibition of his photographs "SHAME - European Stories" will be held in the gallery of the Balkan cinema in Belgrade from May 8 to 22, 2025.
Photo: Justice InitiativeThe exhibition in Belgrade opened on May 8
The name "SHAME" refers to the feeling of shame that victims often carry, which Padovani recognizes as a key word in their testimonies.
The exhibition, brought to Belgrade by the organization Justice Initiative, brings a strong message of support to victims of abuse.
Through the stories of the victims, the exhibition exposes the injustice, the psychological burden and the burden of the culture of silence, calling on society to break the silence and achieve justice.
