Statistics

Statistcis from Rape Crisis Network Ireland's 2009 National Rape Crisis Statistics Report

 

89% of perpetrators were known to survivors

69% of survivors of sexual violence as children only were subjected to sexual violence by more than one perpetrator

38% of survivors of sexual violence as adults reported to the police

26% of all survivors attending RCC’s reported to the police

17% of survivors said that RCC staff were the first people they told about the violence

“I was looking for a code book, a guide book all the time for a long, long time of what to expect next so I could be prepared. And no such things exists of course, but I asked advice from the Rape Crisis Centre and I used the hotline continually which was great because you really do need people to talk to ... and as you grow, you do get stronger, you do ... you do recover ... you do ... become stronger in yourself ... you become far more appreciative of where you’ve been, what you’ve been through and who you’re becoming now.” (Survivor, Rape & Justice in Ireland: 218)

 

What Rape Crisis Centres do

In 2009 13 RCNI member Rape Crisis Centres (RCCs):

• Provided counselling and support to 1,588 people

• Provided 158 accompaniments, and

• responded to 12,393 contacts made to their Helplines throughout Ireland

 

This amounted to:

• 16,549 hours of counselling and support in Rape Crisis Centres and outreaches, as well as

• a further 794.5 hours of accompanying survivors to a range of different services including; Sexual Assault Treatment Units (SATUs), Gardaí, court, refugee hearings, and other medical and forensic facilities.

• In addition over 1,133 hours were spent on Helpline calls, texts and emails throughout Ireland in 2009.

 

Counselling and support

Almost nine out of ten RCC service users were survivors of sexual violence (87.7%), the remaining 12.3% were supporting people who have experienced sexual violence

 

When the sexual violence took place

 

 

 

As Graph 1 illustrates as many as six out of ten survivors attending RCCs for counselling did so because they had been subjected to sexual violence as children only (60.7%), while half of this number sought counselling following sexual violence they had been subjected to as adults only (30.4%). Less than one out of the ten of those accessing RCC services had been subjected to sexual violence both as children and adults (8.9%).

 

Gender of survivors

 

Of the 1,389 survivors who attended RCCs for counselling and support 85.2% were female and 14.8% were male (Graph 2).

 

The majority of male survivors (84%) attended Rape Crisis Centres as a result of sexual violence experienced as children only (Graph 3). This is in contrast to the single largest group of female survivors who disclosed sexual violence as children only (56.7%). One third of women (33.4%) had experienced sexual violence as adults only in comparison to 13.3% of men attending RCCs. One in ten (10%) female survivors disclosed experiencing sexual violence as both children and adults. These figures support the findings of SAVI that male vulnerability to sexual violence decreases as males’ age, while female vulnerability does not decrease with age to the same extent (McGee et al, 2002: 280).

 

Type of sexual violence

 

Looking at the first incident of abuse survivors report to RCCs, in 2009 over half of survivors disclosed rape (56%). One in four survivors disclosed sexual assault as the type of sexual violence perpetrated against them (41.4%). In this context sexual assault includes both sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault.

 

There is a fundamental difference in the type of sexual violence experienced by survivors of sexual violence as children only and survivors of sexual violence as adults only. Graph 4 illustrates that survivors of sexual violence as children only most commonly disclose sexual assault (52.9%), followed by rape (45%). The opposite applies to survivors of sexual violence as adults only, where rape is disclosed as the most common type of abuse (by 76.9% of survivors), followed by sexual assault (19.8%).

 

There are also differences in the type of sexual violence that males and females report being subjected to. In Graph 5 we see that female survivors attending RCCs disclosed rape followed by sexual assault as the most common forms of sexual violence perpetrated against them (58.9% and 38.6% respectively). This trend is reversed for men, where 57.1% disclosed sexual assault and 38.6% disclosed rape. A small number of both women and men who sought support had been subjected to sexual harassment (1.6% and 3.3% respectively).

 

Perpetrator Information

 

As can be seen in Graph 6 survivors disclosed that the majority of perpetrators were male (95.7%). This figure refers to all incidents of abuse and all perpetrators. This figure has remained consistent with RCNI statistical analysis in previous years (95.8% in 2008 and 96.2% in 2007).

 

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