One in five men in Finland believe that a woman is to blame if she is the victim of violence because of her appearance or behavior, according to a survey conducted on behalf of the Finnish women’s organization Nyktis, which called the results “disturbing”.

In this survey of more than 1,000 men aged 18 to 79, the question asked was whether a woman “could deserve to be the target of a violent act because of the way she dresses, looks of his or her behavior’.

Across all age groups, one in five men said they agreed with this statement.

“Our research shows that while not all men condone violence against women, there are an alarmingly high number who tolerate it,” said Sila Kakola, president of Nytkis and the Finnish Observatory against violence.

“We need to change a lot of these attitudes and men themselves have a key role to play,” she added.

The results show contradictions: if 21% of men believe that women may deserve to be victims of violence, 90% consider that violence against women is reprehensible. Most also feel that men need to do more to end these violent acts.

Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo reacted by calling violence against women “a shame for Finnish society”.

“Society as a whole must work to change these unnatural and dangerous behaviors and eliminate violence against women,” he said in an Instagram post, calling on “men to take responsibility.”

In Finland, half of women aged 16 to 25 have been victims of physical violence, threats of violence or sexual violence, and one in five have experienced serious violence or rape, according to another survey also published today by Statistics Finland.

“The experience of violence is very broad, whether within a relationship or outside,” commented Marjut Pietilainen, a researcher at the agency, and “young women (…) especially face a lot of violence in different areas.”