A quarter of Bougainvillean men who have admitted to rape were fourteen years or younger when they first committed the crime.
That is one finding of a United Nations study which surveyed 10,000 men on violence against women in the Asia Pacific region.
The Partners for Prevention programme covered nine countries including the autonomous Papua New Guinea region.
The programme coordinator, James Lang, says Bougainville shows the highest rates of physical and sexual violence, with violent men reporting high rates of childhood neglect or emotional abuse.
"In the two sites we studied where there had been or there is ongoing conflict, rates of violence are quite high. These are contexts where violence has been normalised and many men, women and children have been traumatised which points to a cycle of violence, violence against women, girls being connected to violence that's been experienced by men."
James Lang says the study shows violence against women is preventable and more work needs to be done with young men and boys to deal with trauma and change attitudes.
