Omfang av vold og seksuelle overgrep blant samer og ikke-samer

Sami ethnicity has previously not been included in national population-based surveys. Hence, knowledge about violence and sexual abuse among the indigenous Sami in Norway has been sparse. This study is based on data from SAMINOR 2, a population-based, cross-sectional survey on health and living conditions in areas with both Sami and non-Sami in Central and Northern Norway. It includes a total of 11,296 participants: 2,197 (19.4 percent) Sami respondents and 9,099 non-Sami (80.6 percent) respondents. The aim was to assess the prevalence and investigate ethnic differences in sexual, physical, and emotional violence among a population of both Sami and non-Sami women and men. The results show that more Sami women reported emotional, physical, and sexual violence compared to non-Sami women. Almost half of the Sami women and one-third of the non-Sami women reported any lifetime violence. Sami men were more likely to report emotional and physical violence compared to non-Sami men. However, the ethnic differences in sexual violence among men were not significant. Over one-third of the Sami men reported any lifetime violence compared to less than a quarter of the non-Sami men, and most respondents reported violence in childhood. The findings indicate that Sami ethnicity is a risk factor for exposure to lifetime interpersonal violence. The differences remained significant after adjusting for age, educational level, living area, religion, and alcohol intake. For all types of violence, a known perpetrator outside the family was more commonly reported.