FOUR out of 10 people agree with the controversial view that women who drink or take drugs are partly or completely at fault if they are raped.

TODAY we publish a deeply disturbing survey on rape and rape victims that should make us all stop and think about how we judge women, their attackers and our society’s attitude towards what provokes sexual crimes.

THE two Saturdays during Christmas each saw eight victims of sexual assault treated at the specialist unit in the Rotunda Hospital — including one person who had to make a 10-hour return trip from Donegal.

VICTIMS’ groups have expressed alarm at the continuing drop in reports of sex crimes to gardaí at a time when more people are seeking counselling.

A TEXT helpline aimed at young people with problems has been getting 120 appeals for help per day since its launch last August.

THE Rape Crisis Network Ireland has criticised the Garda authorities for not including sexual violence as a policing priority for next year.

YOUR report on Jackie Hayden’s book, A Man in a Woman’s World (December 10), says he was the first man to hold the position of chairperson in the Rape Crisis Network.

FOR Michael D Higgins, it was a book of prose, for Willie O’Dea it was African mines, for Jackie Healy Rae a room to meet with his people in Killarney, and for Bertie Ahern a few free tickets to the dogs.

FOLLOWING a special meeting of the Violence Against Women (VAW) non-governmental sector, we strongly rejected the recently announced COSC: the Irish Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence (Irish Examiner, May 17).

YOUNG people are still not protected from sexual exploitation, the country’s leading rape crisis agency said yesterday.

Miriam Duffy from the Limerick Rape Crisis Centre (LRCC) borrows this quote to show there is no ambiguity on its stance towards pornography.

THERE is growing alarm at the destructive effect extreme pornography is having on Irish society.

RAPE and sexual assault offences are on the rise but Ireland has the highest number of criminal cases collapsing before they reach the courts, it emerged yesterday.

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.

THE inconsistency of judicial sentencing is again put under the spotlight by contrasting sentences handed down this week for rape, one of the most heinous of all crimes.

ADULT child abuse victims have been contacting crisis helplines in record numbers following Wednesday night’s Prime Time exposé on RTÉ.

VICTIMS of paedophile swimming coach Derry O’Rourke were left in anger and despair yesterday as their abuser walked free from jail with no obligation to notify gardaí of his whereabouts for the next seven days.

RAPE victims being taken to sexual assault treatment units in Dublin, Cork and Donegal are finding there is no doctor available to examine them when they arrive.

TEENAGERS consulted about possible changes to the age of sexual consent have told the Government they want the law on the subject to protect them rather than allow them unrestricted freedom.

WITH two totally unrelated strokes of a pen, the Government has managed to do what it has failed abjectly to do in the past decade, and that is to put domestic violence seriously on the political agenda.