The ‘Monster’ in the Room

How do we normalise the conversation on sexual violence?

Sexual violence remains one of the most pressing issues in Hong Kong. Like the mass beneath an iceberg, most cases remain hidden from view, affecting far more people than official records suggest. As civil society organisations and educators push for reform, there is a growing consensus that the city’s approach to sex education, legal frameworks, and social attitudes must evolve.

Jay Yam, Acting Centre Manager of the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women (ACSVAW), highlights both the urgency of reform and the gaps that continue to leave many unsupported.

Underreporting

The true scale of sexual violence extends far beyond official statistics. In the past five years, reported rape cases have hovered between 50 and 79 annually. In 2025, police recorded 68 rape cases and 1,137 indecent assaults. Yet in 2023 alone, RainLily, Hong Kong’s first one-stop crisis centre for victims of sexual violence, received 182 rape reports, more than double the 79 cases reported to police that year.

Survey data paints an even starker picture. A 2013 study by the Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities found that approximately one in seven women (15.4%) had experienced sexual violence or abuse in their lifetime. More than 90% remained silent, and only 8% made a police report.

For Jay, these numbers reveal a system and environment many victims struggle to trust. Fear of reliving trauma, loss of privacy, public scrutiny, and facing perpetrators in court all discourage reporting. Language barriers and cultural differences further isolate individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds. “The actual number is certainly higher,” Jay says. “The seriousness has been heavily underestimated.”

Not Just Women

Founded in 1997 to support women survivors, ACSVAW has since expanded its scope alongside a growing understanding of sexual violence. “At that time, the term ‘sexual violence’ didn’t colloquially exist,” Jay notes, and rape cases were more common.

To provide immediate, one-stop, comprehensive support, the RainLily Sexual Violence Crisis Centre was established in 2000, aiming to minimise secondary trauma and repeated recounting during the reporting and help-seeking process. In 2005, Anti480 Anti-Sexual Violence Resource Centre was launched to focus on education, advocacy, legal reform, and research.

Today, ACSVAW’s services are increasingly gender-inclusive. The organisation collaborates with diverse civil society groups to support marginalised communities, including partnerships with LGBTQ+ organisations such as Quarks, to study the experiences of transgender individuals and sexual minorities. Despite limited government funding for minority groups, it has also worked with deaf communities and individuals with special educational needs to provide tailored support.

“Nine Out of Ten”

Sex education in Hong Kong schools remains inconsistent and often inadequate. Schools often fail to meet even the non-binding guidelines of 30 hours per year set by the Education Bureau in 1997.

Jay observes a profound gap between what students are taught and what they need to know. “When we speak to secondary school students and ask if they’ve heard the term ‘sexual violence,’ most shake their heads,” she says. Even by Secondary 3 or 4, awareness is strikingly low.

Based on Jay’s observation, students often lack understanding of key concepts: the relationship between sexual violence and harassment, differences between domestic and sexual violence, and the importance of boundaries. “They might say, ‘Is that not allowed? They think physical contact is normal and acceptable when the couple are in a relationship,” Jay explains. “Nine out of ten students are unfamiliar with boundaries and sexual autonomy.”

This is understandable given that misconceptions persist beyond the classroom. Many view sexual violence as an uncontrollable urge, rather than an abuse of power and a failure of values. To challenge this, ACSVAW uses interactive and experiential teaching. “If you’re hungry and smell fresh bread in a bakery, would you snatch it?” Jay asks students, prompting them to reconsider assumptions about sexual impulse and responsibility.

Workshops also include mock trials and “patriarchal simulation” games. Acting as jurors, university students confront the difficulty of securing convictions. Through role-play, male participants experience the pressures embedded in patriarchal systems, often leading to greater empathy and reflection.

Conceptual Barriers

Despite these efforts, institutional resistance remains strong. Schools often avoid sensitive topics such as consent, relationship boundaries and LGBTQ+ issues. “Teachers themselves are afraid,” Jay says. “Many ask us to replace ‘sexual violence’ with milder terms like ‘sexual harassment.’”

Wider societal attitudes present further barriers. Victim-blaming persists, fuelled by a lack of education about consent and responsibility. Without a clear understanding, public discourse often shifts scrutiny onto victims’ behaviour, rather than that of the perpetrators, reinforcing silence.

The digital age has introduced new risks, including deepfakes and non-consensual intimate images generated by AI. In response, ACSVAW launched a gender-neutral image removal service in early 2021 and played a key role in advocating for the 2021 legislation criminalising the non-consensual publication, or threat of publication, of intimate images, explicitly including altered images. As Jay puts it, “That photo is fake, but the hurt is real.” She emphasises the need for stronger digital literacy and platform accountability, beyond reactive legal measures.

Looking Ahead

Legal reform remains central to long-term change. Many of Hong Kong’s laws, rooted in 1970s English legislation, place heavy emphasis on the defendant’s intent. This allows perpetrators to escape liability by claiming they misread the victim’s silence and lack of resistance as implied consent, says Jay.

Organisations such as ACSVAW advocate for a consent-based legal framework that shifts the focus of sexual offence trials to whether consent was ascertained by the initiator prior to the sexual interaction. The organisation also supports introducing a clearer list of circumstances where there is no consent, similar to recent reforms in other common law jurisdictions, such as when an individual is intoxicated or coerced.

Ultimately, building a safer society requires a multi-layered approach: comprehensive and mandatory sex education, progressive legal reform, and a cultural shift toward empathy and accountability.

Jay hopes that one day, conversations around sexual violence will no longer feel taboo. “If sex education becomes more widespread, people won’t be so resistant,” she says. “When we go into schools to talk about prevention, it must stop feeling like we’re exposing them to something terrifying or unknown, as if we’re asking them to face a monster.” ■

current exhibits on gender-based violence at Anti480 Anti-Sexual Violence Resource Centre, Ho Man Tin