Rapid increase in the Level of Sexual Violence
NB Please see PQ and the Figures below.
On foot of a PQ response from the Justice Minister and CSO Data, Aontú Leader & Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has expressed serious concerns over the incremental increases in sexual violence in the last five years.
An Teachta Tóibín:
“In figures obtained by my office, there has been worrying increases in sexual violence in the past five years. Figures decreased marginally in 2020, however this should be reconciled with the global pandemic and Lockdowns which have impacted our very way of life. In 2016, the CSO recorded 2,520 Sexual Offences – increasing to 3,340 by 2019. Between 2016 and 2020, we have also seen instances of rape, defilement of a boy/girl under 17, and sexual assault increase. There needs to be a serious national conversation about the underlying reasons for this increase, and how we can best respond to these increases.”
“There needs to be a further discussion around sentencing for sexual violence. In 2019, a man was sentenced to a mere 2 and a half years in prison for sexual assault of a 13 year old girl. In 2015, Magnus Meyer Hustveit was given a year suspended sentence for frequent rape and sexual assault of his girlfriend whilst asleep over the course of a year, with the Judge in that case crediting Hustveit for confessing and allowing the case to be brought forth. In February of this year, a former drug dealer was given a fully suspended sentence despite sexually assaulting a woman. Another case in 2021, saw a man spared a criminal conviction for sexual assault of two women if he gave a donation of €100 to the Rape Crisis Centre. These disgraceful sentences follow on from reports that only one in eight sexual offenders in prison have taken part in the State’s treatment programme - the Building Better Lives programme .”
“We need to do better and must do better, to combat the scourge of sexual violence in our society. Traditionally many commentators attributable the increase in cases to an increase in the reporting of cases. While this may have some impact on the number of cases there is no evidence that it makes up the majority of the increase in the number of cases of sexual violence. We need as a society to discuss the increased sexualisation of children at a very young age, the ease of access that now exists to extreme sexual and violent material on the internet and the effects that this is having on society was a whole. The government have spoken in worried tones about this but have done nothing. We in Aontú have produced a bill seeking to stop Internet Pornography companies selling explicit material to children as young as ten. We are calling on the government to take this seriously and match the crisis wit action.
Statistic Year Type of Offence UNIT VALUE
Recorded Crime Offences Under Reservation
2020 Sexual offences Number 2986
2019 Sexual offences Number 3340
2018 Sexual offences Number 3206
2017 Sexual offences Number 2881
2016 Sexual offences Number 2520
Recorded Crime Offences Under Reservation
2020 Rape of a Male/Female Number 767
2019 Rape of a Male/Female Number 830
2018 Rape of a Male/Female Number 791
2017 Rape of a Male/Female Number 651
2016 Rape of a Male/Female Number 516
Recorded Crime Offences Under Reservation
2020 Defilement of Boy/Girl Under 17 Number 218
2019 Defilement of Boy/Girl Under 17 Number 200
2018 Defilement of Boy/Girl Under 17 Number 179
2017 Defilement of Boy/Girl Under 17 Number 159
2016 Defilement of Boy/Girl Under 17 Number 161
Recorded Crime Offences Under Reservation
2020 Sexual Offence Involving Mentally-Impaired Person Number 13
2019 Sexual Offence Involving Mentally-Impaired Person Number 20
2018 Sexual Offence Involving Mentally-Impaired Person Number 43
2017 Sexual Offence Involving Mentally-Impaired Person Number 29
2016 Sexual Offence Involving Mentally-Impaired Person Number 19
Recorded Crime Offences Under Reservation
2020 Aggravated Sexual Assault Number 4
2019 Aggravated Sexual Assault Number 9
2018 Aggravated Sexual Assault Number 11
2017 Aggravated Sexual Assault Number 6
2016 Aggravated Sexual Assault Number 9
Recorded Crime Offences Under Reservation
2020 Sexual Assault Number 1543
2019 Sexual Assault Number 1772
2018 Sexual Assault Number 1772
2017 Sexual Assault Number 1686
2016 Sexual Assault Number 1524
Recorded Crime Offences Under Reservation
2020 Other Sexual Offences Number 441
2019 Other Sexual Offences Number 509
2018 Other Sexual Offences Number 410
2017 Other Sexual Offences Number 350
2016 Other Sexual Offences Number 291
______________________________________________
For Written Answer on : 31/03/2021
Question Number: 796 Question Reference: 16557/21
Department: Justice
Asked by: Peadar Tóibín T.D.
______________________________________________
QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Justice the number of reports and convictions for sexual assault or rape there have been in each year since 2015; and the average, longest and shortest sentences given.
REPLY
The Central Statistics Office , as the national statistics agency, is responsible for the publication of official Recorded Crime Statistics and they publish quarterly publications which contain details on criminal incidents by crime type, including sexual offences. They also have a specific publication on Victims & Offenders which contains more detail on victims of sexual offences. Finally, their detections publications bring criminal incidents together with detections for those crimes.
This landing page contains all the data the CSO publishes:
https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/crimeandjustice/
As the Deputy may be aware, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions. This includes the provision of information on the courts system.
To be of assistance, I made enquiries with the Courts Service, who have informed me that statistics relevant to the information sought by the Deputy, insofar as they are available, are set out in the Courts Service Annual Reports which are published on the Courts Service website.
All annual reports are available on - https://www.courts.ie
