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.
This chapter looks at those who experienced sexual violence as a child and their interaction, or not, with the police. The experiences detailed in this chapter covers experiences which occurred under the age of consent in Ireland (under 17 years) and is based on replies from those aged 18 and over.
Sexual violence as a child is defined as a range of unwanted experiences from non-contact experiences to contact experiences. Unwanted sexual non-contact experiences include being shown pornographic material, being asked to pose in a sexually suggestive manner for photographs, having someone expose themselves or someone masturbating in front of a child. Unwanted sexual contact experiences include sexual touching (where the respondent as a child was touched in a sexual way or made to touch somebody else in a sexual way), unwanted sexual intercourse, unwanted attempted sexual intercourse or another not-specified sexual contact that was attempted. See the Background Notes for further details.
Please note that the statistics quoted in this chapter relate to those who reported experiencing sexual violence as a child and disclosed to someone and do not relate to the overall population of adults in Ireland.
Please also note that the term “police” is used in this chapter. This refers to An Garda Síochána or any other relevant policing authority in another country. This survey captures the prevalence of sexual violence for those adults currently living in Ireland. Details relating to the sexual violence experience did not capture whether the experience happened in Ireland or another country, both for those who lived in a different country before moving to Ireland and for those who may have experienced sexual violence on a short-term period abroad. Hence the term “police” is used to acknowledge that the experience, and any related disclosure, may have occurred in a different policing jurisdiction to Ireland.
In terms of those who experienced sexual violence as a child and disclosed to others, most adult (81%) did not disclose to the police. The most frequently selected reason they did not disclose to the police was that they thought the experience was not serious enough with 41% of adults choosing this, with rate for men and women similar (39% and 41% respectively). Just over a quarter of adults (28%) did not disclose an experience of childhood sexual violence to the police because they felt ashamed or embarrassed with 15% who thought that they would not be believed.
Key findings for those who experienced sexual violence as a child and disclosed to others by whether they disclosed to the police:
X-axis label | Not stated | Don't know | No | Yes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Male | 4 | 7 | 81 | 8 |
Female | 0 | 6 | 81 | 13 |
Key findings for those who experienced sexual violence as a child and disclosed to the police by how long it took them to disclose to the police:
Key findings for those who experienced sexual violence as a child and disclosed to others, but not to the police, by the reasons why they did not disclose to the police:
Reasons why person did not disclose to the police | Reasons why person did not disclose to the police |
---|---|
Thought that the police would not have been able to help | 16 |
Afraid of family's reaction | 15 |
Felt ashamed or embarrassed | 28 |
Thought that what happened wasn't serious enough | 41 |
Blamed themself for what happened | 12 |
Were under the influence of alcohol or drugs when it happened | 3 |
Did not think they would be believed | 15 |
Did not want the perpetrator(s) to be punished | 7 |
Did not want to go to court | 9 |
Other | 25 |
Not stated | 4 |
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.