There were 2,892 victims of sexual violence in 2021. Of this, 2,357 victims were female and 535 were male. This equates to a ratio of about four to one between females and males and this has been the case over the period since 2018. See Table 3.1 and Figure 3.1.

Victims of Attempts/threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences totalled 19,739 in 2021. Of this, just over eight of every ten (82.9%) were victims of physical assault. The ratio of male to female victims of physical assault was relatively stable at close to 60:40 over the period since 2018. See Table 3.1 and Figure 3.1.

On the other hand, seven out of every ten (69.2%) victims of Homicide offences were male in 2021. The ratio of male to female victims varied somewhat over the period since 2018. Up to 2019, nearly eight out of ten victims were male while in 2020, males accounted for two thirds of all victims of Homicide offences. See Table 3.1 and Figure 3.1.

Nearly half of all victims of Homicide offences (48.7%) in 2021 were aged 45 years or over. Just over a tenth (10.3%) were under 18 and nearly a quarter (23.1%) were aged between 18-29 years. Murder or manslaughter victims accounted for 24 of the 39 victims of Homicide offences in 2021. The age profile of these victims was somewhat similar to that of Homicides offences as a whole: exactly half were aged 45 years or more, a quarter were aged between 18 and 29 years while 8.3% were under 18 years. See Table 3.2 and Figure 3.2.

Four out of every ten (40%) victims of Dangerous driving leading to death were aged between 18 and 44 years in 2021. A third of victims (33.3%) were aged 45 to 59 years while 13.3% were aged less than 18 years. See Table 3.2 and Figure 3.2.

The share of victims of assault and related offences who were female was 44.4% in 2021, down very slightly from the 44.6% recorded in 2020. However, these were higher than the 41.1% and 40.7% recorded in 2019 and 2018 respectively. This may be attributable to the larger relative decline in the number of male assault victims in 2020 and 2021 linked to the varying levels of COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time. See Table 3.1 and Figure 3.3.

In 2021, 56.2% of recorded victims of Sexual offences were aged less than 18 years when the offence occurred. This was down from the 62.5% recorded in 2020 but close to the levels recorded in 2019 (56.3%) and 2018 (55.4%).  The share of victims aged between 18 and 29 years was 26.9%, up from 21.8% in 2020 but slightly more than in 2019 (25.1%) and 2018 (26.0%). The share of victims aged between 30 and 44 years was 11.2% in 2021 and this was higher than the 10.3% recorded in 2020 but lower than in 2019 and 2018 when it was 12.4% and 12.7% respectively. See Table 3.2 and Figure 3.4.

There is often a separation in time between when a crime occurred and when it was subsequently reported to or became known to An Garda Síochána. This is observed to be a particular feature of sexual offences which are often not reported by victims for a substantial period of time after the offence has taken place. A breakdown of the period of time between the date of occurrence of sexual violence crime incidents and the date reported to An Garda Síochána is provided in Table 3.3.

One in four of victims (24.8% or 716) of sexual violence who reported crimes in 2021 referred to offences which occurred more than ten years earlier. This was at more or less the same level in the two years prior to 2020 despite increasing to 28.2% in 2020. See Table 3.3.

Over half of victims (57.7% or 1,670) who reported sexual violence crimes to An Garda Síochána in 2021 referred to offences which took place less than a year prior to the reporting of the crime. The remaining 1,222 victims (42.3%) reported offences which occurred more than one year prior to their reporting to An Garda Síochána, and the gap between the reporting date and the date of occurrence of the crime showed considerable variation. See Table 3.3 and Figure 3.5.

Recorded crime data in respect of sexual violence crimes, and victims, relates both to events which were reported to An Garda Síochána shortly after their occurrence, as well as to events which may have happened many years ago but are now being reported by victims. The profile of victims differs depending on this incident-reporting gap, and consequently they are examined separately in the analysis which follows. For ease of understanding, the scenarios are referred to as ‘recent’ (i.e. crime reported within one year of occurrence) and ‘historic’ (i.e. crime reported more than one year after its occurrence) in the subsequent analysis.

In 2021, the number of victims of reported historic Sexual offences was 1,222 or 42.3% of the total number of victims of Sexual offences. Although, its share was down slightly from the 45.1% recorded in 2020, it represents a higher share than was observed in 2019 (38.8%) and 2018 (37.6%). See Table 3.4 and Figure 3.6.

There were 565 female and 80 male victims of recent sexual violence crimes reported in 2021 who were under 18 years of age at the time of the offence. Together, these accounted for nearly four out of every ten (38.6%) victims who reported sexual violence which had taken place in the year prior to the crime being reported.  Female victims aged 18 to 29 years accounted for a further 34.8% or 581 of all victims compared to just 2.9% or 49 for males. There were 360 females aged 30 years or more who reported such offences and these accounted for 21.6% of the total compared to just 2.1% or 35 for males. See Table 3.4 and Figure 3.7.

Overall, females accounted for nine out of every ten (90.2%) victims who in 2021 reported sexual violence crimes which had taken place in the previous year. This figure is consistent with the equivalent figures between 2018 and 2020 which ranged from 88.8% to 89.1%. See Table 3.4.

There were 1,222 victims of reported historical sexual violence in 2021 and 80.3% or 981 of these were under the age of 18 when the offence occurred. There were 635 females who were aged under 18 at the time of the offence who accounted for 52.0% of the total. A further 346 victims or 28.3% of the total were males under the age of 18. See Table 3.4 and Figure 3.8

Overall, seven out of ten (69.6%) victims of historical sexual violence were female and 30.4% were male. See Table 3.4 and Figure 3.8.

Although the vast majority (80.3%) of victims of historic sexual violence crime were under 18 when the offences took place (see table 3.4), more than half (53.3%) of the historic sexual violence crime reported in 2021 was by victims aged 30 years or over (377 females and 274 males). This highlighted the considerable gap between victimisation and reporting for many sexual violence victims. See Table 3.5 and Figure 3.9.