This publication provides more detail on the experiences of sexual violence in adulthood in Ireland, following on from the publication of the Sexual Violence Survey 2022 - Main Results (published on 19 April 2023). This survey was conducted following a request from the Department of Justice and the Government. The objective of the survey is to provide high quality national prevalence data on sexual violence in Ireland which will act as a new baseline for the levels of sexual violence in Ireland. The survey is proposed to be conducted again in 10 years’ time.
Sexual violence is defined in this survey as a range of non-consensual experiences, from non-contact experiences to non-consensual sexual intercourse. The word “violence” is sometimes associated with the use of force. However, as outlined in the Luxembourg Guidelines, which is a set of guidelines to harmonise terms on childhood sexual violence and abuse, “violence” can also mean having a marked or powerful effect on someone. The experiences detailed in this publication range across a variety of experiences up to and including those which result in the most serious violations of personal dignity. Examples of these experiences include:
- a teenager persuading a friend to watch a pornographic video on their phone when they didn’t want to see it
- someone being persuaded to undress or pose in a sexually suggestive way for photographs as a child
- a young woman being made to touch another person’s genitals without her consent
- a man being threatened to have sex.
This definition is based on national research, using the Scoping Group on Sexual Violence Data, and also on international research. The latter included the Istanbul convention, methodological manual for the EU survey on gender-based violence against women and other forms of inter-personal violence (EU-GBV), the Luxembourg guidelines and relevant research from the United Nations.
Please note that for this publication, sexual violence as an adult is defined as a range of non-consensual experiences, from non-consensual sexual touching to non-consensual sexual intercourse. This does not exclude those who may have also experienced sexual violence as a child. The overlap between child and adult experiences of sexual violence is discussed in the Overall Prevalence chapter in the Sexual Violence Survey 2022 - Main Results publication. Further details on those who experienced sexual violence as a child (for example, how often it happened, further detail on the perpetrators, location of experiences, etc.) will be included in a future publication. In addition, where the word reported is used in this publication it means that the person told the CSO as part of this survey.
The CSO worked with a range of stakeholders in Ireland to ensure that the survey was well-designed, operationally effective and conducted in an ethical manner. More details on the consultation process can be found in the Background Notes.
This survey was asked of adults (those aged 18 and over) in Ireland using a randomly generated national sample. As this is a national sample survey, details on some cohorts of the population will not be available for publication as they may not be reliable due to the small number of observations for those cohorts. This issue was also recognised by the Scoping Group on Sexual Violence Data as they state a “national survey by its nature cannot achieve data to make any useful or meaningful conclusions in relation to small groups”. Recognising this gap, the Department of Justice has agreed to engage on qualitative type research to address the information gaps for the cohorts of the population not specifically covered in this publication. More details on the data collection for this survey can be found in the Introduction to the Main Results publication or in the Background Notes to this publication.
This publication is the second of six resulting from the Sexual Violence Survey 2022 (see Background Notes for details). This publication on experiences of sexual violence in adulthood includes partner and non-partner experiences, as well as the frequency of experiences, who was involved, and if non-partner experiences, the location of the sexual violence experience. It also will present data on sexual violence experienced as an adult by detailed sociodemographic characteristics (sexual violence by educational attainment, sexual orientation, citizenship, etc).
The remaining publications will be on:
- Experiences of Sexual Violence in Childhood (no later than end June 2023)
- Disclosure of Sexual Violence Experiences (no later than end June 2023)
- Sexual Harassment and Stalking (no later than end July 2023)
- Attitudes to Sexual Violence (no later than end July 2023).
The interpretation of results from a sexual violence survey can be challenging as there are a lot of different factors to consider.
Sensitive nature of the data being requested:
- This survey was sensitive and required explicit questions to be asked of participants. For those who have not had experiences of sexual violence in their lifetime, it may generate unease, and for those who have experienced sexual violence, the topic may generate fear and distress. In addition, respondents who have experienced sexual violence may have their own coping mechanisms which can often lead to the minimisation of the experiences. True prevalence of sexual violence is difficult to identify but a survey, which depends on the cooperation of respondents to disclose, may be a close proxy to the true prevalence level if collected in a way that reduces the risk of underreporting, among other things. The CSO has put in place many mechanisms to work toward reducing the risk of underreporting, in particular, the use of self-completion when collecting the survey data. This ensured a confidential setting for the provision of the responses. See Background Notes for more details.
Socially desirable norms:
- Along with the sensitive nature of the topic and the risk of associated underreporting, the issue of socially desired norms is an important one to consider. A recent Eurostat report on Gender-Based Violence noted that “it is important to take into account the extent to which violence is tolerated in the wider community . . . for example, in cultures where people are ready to talk about their painful experience, their answers may reflect more accurately their own experiences rather than community norms. However, in less aware communities it may be that people might reflect socially desirable norms”. In a US study of sexual violence, in commenting on the reported prevalence of sexual violence over time in the US, they noted that an “increased willingness to disclose victimisation experiences appears to be a plausible explanation for the increases in estimates of” sexual violence. Norms can change over time. A number of public awareness campaigns on gender-based violence issues have been run nationally since 2019 in Ireland. This along with wider international movements like #metoo, or the wider coverage of sexual violence disclosure and court proceedings in Ireland can expand the public awareness of these issues.
- The public perception of the prevalence of sexual violence by those who have not experienced sexual violence was examined in this survey. The results showed high levels of societal awareness in Ireland around sexual violence. Almost nine in ten women and about seven in ten men reported that sexual violence against women is “common”. Fewer people reported that sexual violence against men is “common” – about five in ten women and three in ten men. Younger people were more likely to say that sexual violence against women or men is “common”. See Background Notes from the Sexual Violence Survey 2022 - Main Results for more details.
In addition to the issues highlighted above, the following should be considered when attempting to compare the results of this survey with the results of other countries/other surveys:
- Differences in the definitions of variables over time and country - some sexual violence variables may be formed on a definition based on the current country specific legal interpretation of criminal acts, while others may take a broader sense of the issue.
- How the survey is framed may lead to a different prevalence level - for example, if it is collected as part of a crime survey, the respondents may not disclose some sexual violence experiences due to minimisation of the experience as a coping mechanism (the respondent may not categorise them as crimes). The CSO Sexual Violence Survey is a stand-alone survey.
- How the data is collected can have an impact on the prevalence levels – the more confidential the data collection setting, the more likely you are to achieve a truer prevalence level. How countries collect this information differs. The CSO Sexual Violence Survey offered respondents a secure and confidential way (secure web-form directly addressed to the respondent) to respond to the survey.
The detail in this publication may be affecting for those reading it, dealing as it does with some of the most sensitive and traumatic experiences that people can encounter. If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this survey, help is available from the following national helplines or from local/regional helplines which you can find in the Background Notes:
- National Sexual Violence Helpline (for men and women) - 1800 778 888 or rapecrisishelp.ie
- National Domestic Violence Helpline (for women) - 1800 341 900
- Male Advice Line (for men experiencing domestic abuse) - 1800 816 588.
The CSO would like to thank the many contributors to this project. We would like to particularly thank the following people:
- The respondents who engaged with this survey. We are extremely conscious that this survey was very sensitive. We are very appreciative of the trust of respondents in our conduct of the survey and in how we will protect the confidentiality of their experiences. We would like to thank all the respondents who engaged with this survey for their cooperation
- We would like to thank the about 500 respondents who indicated that they had not disclosed any of their sexual violence experience(s) to anyone, but yet they did engage with our survey. We are able to present a clear picture of the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland thanks to the cooperation of people who had not disclosed their sexual violence to anyone. We are very grateful for their engagement with this survey
- Our field data collection team who collected this important societal information
- The Department of Justice – which provided funding for the survey and also contributed on an ongoing basis to the development of our project work in this area
- The NGO support service community who provided valuable insight throughout the survey development.
