UNICEF: 1 in 10 girls raped or sexually abused before age 20 worldwide

On Thursday, UNICEF reported that 120 million girls and young women are forced into sexual intercourse or other sex acts before age 20. That's slightly more than 10 percent of the world's girls. The report, "Hidden in Plain Sight," looked at data from 190 countries, and Anthony Lake, UNICEF's executive director, said the sexual violence "cuts across boundaries of age, geography, religion, ethnicity, and income brackets."

Other depressing findings from the study: About 95,000 children and adolescents were murdered in 2012; more than one in three kids age 13 to 15 are regularly bullied in school; six of 10 children age 2 to 14 are regularly subjected to physical punishment by parents or guardians; and nearly half of young women 15 to 19 said a husband is sometimes justified in beating his wife.

BBC U.N. correspondent Nick Bryant sums up the study: "Never before have so many statistics been gathered from so many different countries, and together they have produced a grim global audit of violence against children."

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