Crime figures - Real decline or a failure to report?

The number of rape prosecutions in Irish courts halved in the past six years, despite evidence that rape is on the increase. We are clearly losing that battle.

New figures show that less than half of the people prosecuted for rape or sexual assault last year were convicted. Moreover, one third of the prison sentences upon conviction were for less than five years.

The annual report of the Courts Service indicated that 58 new rape and sexual assault cases were heard by the Central Criminal Court in 2006, which was an increase of around 30% on the cases taken the previous year, but the figure was almost half the 113 cases prosecuted in 2000.

In 2006, a total of 27 people were convicted of rape. A further 14 were convicted of other sexual assaults, while eight people were found not guilty.

The Rape Crisis Centre (RCC) in Dublin contends that the rape figures do not correlate to the actual instances of rape and sex crimes, which have been on the increase in recent years.

In 2006, there was a 20% rise in the number of people that the RCC accompanied to Sexual Assault Treatments Units. This was on top of a similar 20% increase in 2005.

In one sense, the increase is a show of confidence in turning for help but there is also a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the actual problem is much worse, but many women are not reporting the crimes.

This should hardly be surprising when the conviction rate is so low and the prison sentences, on conviction, are little more than derisory.

Other factors also contribute to a reluctance to report sexual assaults. Many victims know their assailant and others are put off by the length of time it takes to bring a case to court.

Women are understandably anxious to put the horrific ordeal behind them as quickly as possible, rather than have it drag on for 18 months before it comes to court.

Then the old wounds are opened again.

According to figures released by the Central Statistics Office, headline crime decreased by 1.1% last year, even though there were 20 aggravated sexual assaults in the 12 months up to June 2007 compared with 10 sexual assaults in the previous 12 months.

There was an 80% increase in prosecutions for drug production and importation, and a 30% increase in prosecutions for possession of drugs for sale or supply.

In addition, prosecutions for assaults, including false imprisonment, abduction, harassment and endangerment, rose by almost 10%, and there was a 3.4% increase in the number of murder cases, which went up from 58 to 60.

There was, on the other hand, a distinct drop of 30.4% in the number of cases involving dangerous driving causing death or serious injury.

But some of the other declines, such as the 38% drop in unlawful carnal knowledge cases, or the 20% decline in theft from a person cases, or the 12.5% fall in burglaries, may well reflect a failure to report those crimes because of a decline of confidence in the judicial process, rather than any real improvement in the crime rate.