One in 12 students suffer rape, attempted rape, survey finds

One in 12 college students were victims of either rape or attempted rape, according to a survey of more than 2,600 participants.

In addition, more than one in 10 women who responded said they had been subject to unwanted sexual contact.

A significantly lower proportion of men reported similar experiences, with less that 1% reporting either rape or attempted rape.

The study, conducted by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), is the first online study of its nature and scale conducted in this country, and the USI hopes it “will contribute to counteracting the culture of victim- blaming that exists in this country”.

Approximately one in six students reported having experienced some form of unwanted sexual experience while in their current educational institution.

Of these, 38% reported that these experiences had occurred on more than one occasion and 36% said they had occurred either “several times” or “many times”.

When asked why they did not report matters to the gardaí, the two most frequent responses were that they did not believe the incident was serious enough to report (57%) and that they did not think what happened was a crime (44%).

Completed by 2,590 Irish students and 162 international students, the survey also found that, in more than six in 10 cases, the perpetrator was believed to be under the influence of alcohol.

A large proportion of victims did not report these incidents because they were ashamed or embarrassed (29%); because they thought they would be blamed (22%); or because they did not want their parents or family to find out (21%).

The findings, contained in the report ‘Say Something: A Study of Students’ Experiences of Harassment, Stalking, Violence & Sexual Assault’, will be published today to coincide with the launch of a ‘Say Something’ card. The card is designed to provide information for students who find themselves in a situation where sexual violence or assault has occurred, and 30,000 cards will be delivered to students’ unions across the country over the coming weeks.

USI president Kevin Donoghue said he hoped the statistics would “shed new light on the area of violence, including physical and sexual harassment”.

“We want to reverse the culture of victim blaming in Ireland and instead of blaming the victim, we want to help, support, and empower them,” he said.

The research was funded by Cosc and the Department of Justice and Equality.