Child sex abuse survivors wait 25 years for help
Figures from the country’s 15 rape crisis centres show most people contacting the services last year needed help for abuse they endured as children, and that they waited, on average, 25 years before coming forward.
The statistics prompted a call by Rape Crisis Network Ireland for a yes vote in Saturday’s children’s rights referendum. RCNI director Fiona Neary said: “We must make changes to become a society that listens to children and takes responsibility for their wellbeing.”
Of the thousands of people who called RCNI helplines last year, 2,541 came for face-to-face support, with 53% of the women among them and 84% of the men saying their abuse took place when they were children.
In 65% of cases, the victims were under 12 at the time of the abuse, and generally stayed quiet about it until well into their 30s. By contrast, people who suffered sexual violence as adults tended to seek help within five years.
The statistics also reveal the extent to which children suffered at home, with 47% of survivors of child sexual abuse saying their abusers were family members, and 25% of abused men and 37% of abused women being abused in their childhood home.
Family friends, acquaintances, and authority figures formed the biggest group of child abusers and the “stranger danger” threat was relatively rare — responsible for just 5% of cases.
Urging greater constitutional safeguards for children, Ms Neary said: “While the family unit is usually the best place for children, these statistics show that it can also be the most dangerous place.
“Legal protections and adequate resources must be put in place to make the family a safer place and to ensure that children can be heard when they are still children.”
The Iona Institute, a Catholic group, said the statistics misrepresented the threat at home. It said the real issue was family structure, claiming children of married parents were 20 times less at risk of abuse than those living with unmarried partners where one partner was not a biological parent.
It said: “It shows that if the Government is truly committed to child welfare then it must do more to encourage the marriage of children’s biological parents; that is, of their mother and father.”
Ms Neary called the institute’s statement unhelpful and said it minimised sexual abuse within biological families. “The people most likely to be abusing children... are fathers, brothers, uncles — all biological relatives.”
Last year was the busiest ever for the RCNI, with the publication of the report into clerical abuse in the Cloyne Diocese increasing demand during the summer. However, its state funding was cut by €250,000, or 4.7%, leaving the services reliant on volunteers for one in six hours worked.
Ms Neary said the situation was unsustainable and warned against further cuts. “While we are completely indebted to these volunteers, our over-reliance on their work to maintain fundamental parts of a national crisis service for vulnerable people is simply unsustainable,” she said.
* 28,615 calls were made to RCNI helplines.
* 2,541 people attended centres for counselling and support.
* 88% were women and 12% men.
* 90% of victims of rape or sexual abuse knew the perpetrator.
* 47% of perpetrators of child sexual abuse were family members.
* 21% of perpetrators of sexual violence against women were partners or ex-partners.
* 30% of victims reported their ordeal to gardaí.
* 84% of men suffered sex abuse in childhood only, compared to 53% of women.
* 13% of men suffered sex abuse only as an adult, compared to 40% of women.
* 3% of men suffered as a child and adult, compared to 7% of women.
* 52% of supporters accompanying a survivor to counselling were their parents.
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