Rape Crisis Network Ireland and CARI

Protecting vulnerable Children:

The ICA supports the work of the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) and Children At Risk in Ireland (CARI) and attended the launch in October 2013 of the joint report “Hearing Child Survivors of Sexual Violence: towards a national response”. The report looks at the experiences of 192 RCC/CARI service users under the age of 18 who have experienced an incident or incidents of sexual violence.

Please find attached a copy of the report, which is also available to download from our website: http://www.rcni.ie/publications/research-and-reports/

Some key findings and statistics below from the report

Common patterns of abuse

Children under age 13 are most vulnerable to sexual assault, perpetrated over many years by a male family member in the survivor’s home/abusers home.
Children aged 13 onwards are most vulnerable to rape perpetrated by a male non-family member (usually friends/acquaintances/neighbours) over a number of hours in an outdoor locations or other location outside the home.

Key statistics

75% of child survivors, both girls and boys, aged 13-17 were subjected to rape.
60% of female child survivors were subjected to rape compared to 30% of male child survivors.
70% of children under the age of 5 were subjected to sexual assault.
73% of girls aged 13-17 were abused in an outdoor location or location other than their own home or the perpetrators home.
85% of incidents of sexual violence perpetrated against girls aged 13-17 lasted hours.
59% of child survivors disclosed experiencing additional forms of violence along with the sexual violence.

Adult perpetrators of sexual violence against child survivors

The average age of perpetrators was 26, 98% were male.
31% of incidents of abuse against child survivors were perpetrated by family members.
39% of incidents of abuse against child survivors were perpetrated by friends/acquaintances/neighbours.

Child perpetrators of sexual violence against child survivors

37% of perpetrators of sexual violence against child survivors were under age 18.
97% of child perpetrators were male.
Child perpetrators were most likely to be friends/acquaintances/neighbours of the survivor (56%).
Family members accounted for 24% of child perpetrators of sexual violence against children.
Child perpetrators abused those of similar age or younger who were usually non-family members.

Disclosure and reporting

Child survivors mostly disclosed the sexual violence to their parents first (75%).
82% of sexual incidents disclosed by child survivors were reported to a formal authority by the survivor themselves or their guardian.