Sex crimes committed by juveniles quadruple

The number of sex crimes committed by juveniles has almost quadrupled in the last four years, Garda figures show.

The sharp rise has again sparked concern among gardaí at the effect widespread access to hardcore pornography is having on some boys.

The 2012 report of the Garda Diversion Programme — which aims to keep children away from the courts — shows that while there had been a significant drop in offences committed by children under the age of 18, sex crimes have continued to increase.

The reports shows there were 291 sex offences in 2012, compared to 250 in 2011.

Further analysis reveals this is a continuing trend on recent years, with 195 such offences in 2010 and 74 in 2009.

This means such crimes have risen almost four-fold between 2009 and 2012.

The biggest increases in 2012 in the sexual offences category were for sexual assaults (up 52%, from 112 to 170) and defilement of a boy or girl under the age of 17 (up 33%, from 33 to 44). There was a 16% drop in rape of a male or female.

Garda sources said that while no research has been conducted to determine why there has been such a rise, they believe it is due to an increase in the crime and a greater awareness among children and their parents to report it.

Sources said some boys were affected by the sheer availability of explicit pornography and expected this behaviour in their relationships with girls.

“They see this on their mobile phones, tablets, laptops, whatever and their parents might have adult channels on the home TV,” said a Garda source. “When they meet a girl they expect that this is what is going to happen.”

He said parents and children were now more willing to report incidents and that this might explain part of the rise in such cases.

The report shows there were 24,069 detected crimes linked to juveniles in 2012, compared to 27,384 in 2011, a drop of 12%.

The number of children referred to the diversion programme only fell by 4%, from 12,809 in 2011 to 12,246 in 2012. Of these, 80% were accepted in 2012 (76% in 2011) while 15% were not considered suitable and were dealt with by the criminal justice process (14% in 2011).

The number of children being referred to the programme has dropped dramatically from a height of 21,941 in 2007.

Of the crimes in 2012, public order and theft accounted for the bulk (29% and 25% respectively). Of the 16 crime categories, 12 noticed a fall in offences, with three experienced a rise in addition to sex crimes.

Homicide offences rose by 200% (from two to six), kidnappings jumped by 33% (from nine to 12) and other offences rose by 119% (from 21 to 46).

Drug offences dropped by 7%, but the number of juveniles caught drug dealing only fell by 1% (from 196 to 194).

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