'Saddening but not surprising': Sexual offences have lowest detection rate

Sat, 06 Nov, 2021 - 06:00

Cormac O’Keeffe, Security Correspondent

Rape crisis groups have described as “saddening but not surprising” official figures showing that sexual offences continue to be the category of crime with the lowest level of detection.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said that just 10% of sexual offences reported in 2020 have been detected as of September 2021.

The crime category with the next lowest detection rate is fraud, at 19%.

The CSO said that the figure for sexual offences is down slightly on the corresponding figure for 2019, when 12% of crimes were detected by September 2020.

However, the data goes on to show that as time passes and more crimes are solved, the 12% detection rate for sexual offences reported in 2019 increased to 20% by September 2021.

“First off, it is really useful to get these figures because they fill in another piece of the jigsaw for us about what happens when a person reports rape and other sexual assault,” said Noeline Blackwell, CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.

“It is saddening, but not surprising to us, that the detection rate is low — lowest of all categories of crimes.”

She cited other figures in the report, detailing charges that have been brought over the last six years, which showed that “even in the best years”, in 2015 and 2016, only 24% of reported sexual offences resulted in charges.

“By contrast, 2021 has a detection rate of 10.3 and even when the 2019 figure is updated, it only shows that one in five cases gets to the stage of charge or other process.”

Dropping out of the investigation system

Ms Blackwell said this was in line with research and the centre’s own experience that people drop out of the investigation system for a number of reasons.

She said these include that the case took place in private and there is a fundamental dispute over whether there was consent, or the investigation is so slow that the complainant abandons it to get on with their lives so as to not be constantly reliving the traumatic incident.

She said they can also be put under pressure to withdraw, noting that most complainants know their offender.

The CSO report also found that 97% of rape and sexual assaults were committed by men, which Ms Blackwell said was in line with much objective evidence.

The figures further show that half of detected offenders were under the age of 30 and that one in five (22%) were juveniles, under the age of 18.

“This is consistent with research we published last week showing the absence of education and understanding about consent amongst young adults. These youth figures are a real problem for our society.”