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Friends or acquaintances were the reported suspects for just over a fifth (21%) of Sexual offences while 17% were strangers to the victims.
For Assault offences, a quarter (25%) of reported suspects were strangers to the victim and just over a fifth (22%) were partners or ex-partners of the victims.
Persons in authority or those with a responsibility for care were more likely to be the reported suspect for Sexual offences against males (13%) than females (2%). By contrast, partners or ex-partners were the reported suspects for 18% of Sexual offences against females compared with just 1% for males.
When the reported suspects were blood relatives, nearly all (94%) victims of Sexual offences were under 18 years when the offence took place.
Nearly all (94%) Sexual offences where the reported suspect was a stranger to the victim were reported within a year.
Strangers were the reported suspects for a higher share of assaults on males (36%) than females (12%).
Strangers, friends or acquaintances were the reported suspects for nearly four out of ten (39%) assaults on persons under 18 at the time of the offence.
This is an audio file with a 26-second quote from CSO Statistician with the Crime & Criminal Justice Section, Jim Dalton, about the Relationship Between Victims and Reported Suspects for Sexual and Assault Offences Q3 2021 - Q3 2022 publication.
Media outlets have permission to use the clip as long as they credit the CSO.
View presentation on YouTube
This publication presents information on the relationship between victims and reported suspects for Sexual and Assault offences for the period Quarter 3 2021 to Quarter 3 2022. The relationship data shows the level of familiarity between the victim of these crimes with the reported suspect. Please see background notes for a description of each relationship category.
The data is sourced from PULSE, the administrative crime database of An Garda Síochána (AGS). Due to the relationship recording being available from Q3 2021, based on development work by AGS, the CSO is now in a position to report on the relationship between victims and reported suspects. This data provides additional insight into some of the most serious crimes committed in Ireland.
The data presented is based only on the view of the relationship between the victim and reported suspect as reported to An Garda Síochána by the victim and where such relationship is known. Therefore, it excludes instances where no reported suspect has yet been identified or where the nature of the relationship is not known. Currently, 77% of reported sexual offences have a known relationship, and 76% of assault offences. Consequently, the crime incident volumes in each table will not accrue to the published volumes of crime incidents for these crime categories. The data presented is not an account of detections (please see Background Notes for further details).
The crime category ‘Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassment and Related offences’ are referred to as ‘Assault offences’ in this publication.
The relationship category ‘reported suspect unknown to the victim’ will be referred to as ‘stranger’ in this publication.
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Statistician's Comment
Commenting on the publication, Jim Dalton, Statistician in the Crime & Criminal Justice Section, said: “The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today published for the first time data on the nature of the relationship between the victim and reported suspect for Recorded Sexual and Assault offences covering the period from Quarter 3 (Q3) 2021 to Q3 2022. Due to the relationship data being available from Q3 2021, based on development work by An Garda Síochána (AGS), the CSO is now able to report on the relationship between victims and reported suspects for these crimes. For the purpose of this publication, the AGS relationship classification ‘reported suspect not known to the victim’ is referred to as ‘stranger’. The main findings are as follows:
Sexual offences
The reported suspect was known to the victim in just over eight in ten (83%) recorded Sexual offences between Q3 2021 and Q3 2022.
The results also show that just over a fifth (21%) of reported suspects for Sexual offences were a friend or acquaintance of the victim, while a further 17% were a stranger. Blood relatives accounted for 16% of reported suspects and a further 15% were partners or ex-partners.
Comparing male and female victims, the reported suspect for Sexual offences against males (13%) was more likely to be a person in authority or with care responsibilities than for females (2%).
In contrast, partners or ex-partners were the reported suspect for 18% of Sexual offences against females compared with just 1% for males. There were other differences too between males and females, for example, blood relatives were the reported suspects for 23% of offences against males compared with 14% of offences against females.
Looking at the age of the victim when the offence took place, blood relatives were also the reported suspect for nearly three in ten (29%) Sexual offences committed against persons who were aged under 18 years. Friends or acquaintances were the reported suspect for a fifth (20%) of offences against this age group.
Partners or ex-partners were the reported suspect for 40% of Sexual offences against persons aged 30-44 years when the offence occurred. This compared with 18% for victims in each of the age groups 18-29 years and those aged 45 years or more.
There were differences too in the length of time taken to report offences depending on the reported suspect. Nearly all (94%) Sexual offences were reported within a year of occurrence when the reported suspect was a stranger. This was also true where the reported suspect was a current partner or spouse (85%), colleague or work relationship (84%), or friend or acquaintance (76%). By contrast, when the reported suspect was a blood relative, just over three out of four (76%) offences were reported more than a year after the offence occurred.
Assault offences
The reported suspect was known to the victim in three out of four (75%) Assault offences. A partner or ex-partner was the reported suspect for just over a fifth (22%) of such crimes, 14% were a friend or acquaintance, and 13% were a blood relative.
Comparing males and females, strangers were the reported suspects for 36% of assault crimes against males compared with 12% for those against females. By contrast, partners or ex-partners were the reported suspect for nearly four in ten (39%) assaults against females compared with 6% for males.
When the reported suspect was a partner or ex-partner, 87% of victims of assaults involved a female victim. However, when the reported suspect was a stranger, 76% of victims of assault were male.
Looking at the age of victims when the offence occurred, blood relatives were the reported suspects for three out of ten (30%) assaults against persons under 18 years.
In other age groups, blood relatives were the reported suspect for 17% of assaults against victims who were 45 years or over, 8% for those aged 18-29 years, and 7% for the 30-44-year age group. The results also show that the reported suspect was a stranger to the victim for just over one fifth (21%) of assaults against victims under 18 years.
When one looks at the time taken to report Assault offences, strangers were the reported suspect for 25% of those reported within a year and just 4% of those reported after a year.
By contrast, partners or ex-partners were the reported suspects for 51% of assaults reported after a year and 21% of those reported within a year of occurrence.”