The statistics don’t lie: Some of us don’t count

The failure to update the Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland study of 2002 renders victims of such behaviour invisible and is a political act, says Dr Claire Edwards

The debate about the Government’s reluctance to commission a second Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland (SAVI) study, combined with the statement from Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) that, due to funding cuts, it would no longer be able to release national statistics on sexual violence, has raised crucial questions about how we are to understand this deeply personal, but necessarily public, issue in Irish society.

The original SAVI study, conducted in 2002 by the Royal College of Surgeons, in conjunction with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, was one of the most comprehensive, rigorous studies of sexual violence in the State.