Fergus Finlay: We have an epidemic of sexual violence on our hands

It is men who have created the systems and the rules and the culture and the mores that belittle and demean women

Sexual violence doesn’t always involve physical violence. It can also involve intimidation, pressure, exploitation of vulnerability, abuse of a position of trust or authority. It always involves betrayal.

Just exactly how many of us are there? I know the vast majority of us are male because that’s the nature of the thing. But are there tens of thousands of us, hundreds of thousands? Could there be a million of us? Are we old or young, married or single? Are we sorry or ashamed, consumed with guilt and desperate to atone? Or are pleased that we got away with it?

Perpetrators of sexual violence, that’s what I’m talking about. At this stage of my life, I’m not easily shocked or horrified, but the figures in a recent Central Statistics Office report made me sit bolt upright.