Majority of victims of serious crimes knew their attacker, CSO data shows

Of the victims of sexual assaults, 81% were women and about half of all victims were under 18 when the incident took place.

The majority of victims of serious crimes knew their attacker, the latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

Figures show that just over 70% of sexual assault victims in 2022 knew their attacker, while the suspected offender was known to 67% of victims of attempts or threats to murder, assault, or harass them.

Of the victims of sexual assaults in 2023, 81% were women and about half of all victims were under 18 when the incident took place.

Some 20% of sexual offences in 2022 involved a male suspected offender and a male victim.

The figures, based on recorded crime data collected by An Garda Síochána on its Pulse system, also show that just over 21% of sexual assault victims were a friend or acquaintance of the offender, while 14% were blood relatives.

Current or former intimate partners or spouses accounted for 7% of all suspected offenders for this type of offence. The suspected offender was a stranger to the victim in about 29% of detected offences.

Some 60% of assault victims in 2023 were men, and just over 68% of victims of harassment and related offences were women.

The CSO also reported that 28% of victims of historical sexual offences reported in 2023 were boys under 18 years of age when the incident occurred; this compared with nearly half, 48%, for female victims.

A third of victims, 32%, of reported dangerous driving leading to death offences in 2023 were under 18 years of age when the offence occurred.

CSO crime and criminal justice section statistician Jim Dalton said recorded crime victim statistics for 2023 and offender statistics for 2022 include a new section on the nature of the relationship between victims and offenders.

“The data in this chapter is based on crime incidents where the relationship between the victim and suspected offender is known,” said Mr Dalton.

“Suspected offender statistics are published up to 2022 only to allow time for criminal investigations to progress.”

The results also show that nearly two-thirds, 63%, of sexual offences reported by victims in 2023 were within a year of occurrence.

However, one out of five offences reported referred to incidents that occurred over 10 years earlier.

Historic offences

Historic sexual offences refer to those offences that were reported more than one year after occurrence while ‘recent’ offences refer to those reported within one year of occurrence.

“When one looks at attempts or threats to murder, assault, or harass, friends or acquaintances accounted for 14% of suspected offenders,” said Mr Dalton.

“The share for current and former intimate partners or spouses was 9% and 6% respectively.

“The share of blood relatives among suspected offenders was 8%.

“In 33% of such offences, the suspected offender was a stranger to the victim.”