(The Nationalist, 7 March 2003)
Here are some facts and figures on the topic of sexual abuse and violence. They are a wake-up call to everyone with a conscience.
Extracts from a Report of the College of Surgeons in Ireland, published in April 2002, entitled Sex Abuse and Violence in Ireland:
42% of women and 28% of men report suffering some sexual abuse in their lifetime.
Penetrative abuse affected 10% of women and 3% of men; this means that one woman in every ten has been raped at some time in her life.
67% of abused girls and 62% of abused boys suffered abuse before the age of 12. For many of them the abuse went on for more than a year.
25% of the abusers were juveniles.
30% of Irish women said they had been sexually abused as girls, compared to 29% in North America and 17% in Europe.
24% of Irish men said they had been sexually abused as boys, compared to 7% in North America and 5% in Europe.
The rate of report to police was very low, and the number of victims who sought help was minimal.
The surveyors interviewed 3,000 people, and 500 of those were speaking about it for the first time in their lives.
Information from other sources: between 85% and 92% of child sex abusers are relatives, or known and trusted family friends.
Professor Robert Rowthorn, of King’s College, Cambridge, speaking to the Irish Association of School Principals and Deputy Principals in October 2001, reported in The Irish Independent, on 22 October 2001, said the risk of serious child abuse [not only sexual] is between 15 and 150 times greater for children living in a step-family than with their biological parents.
In 1998, 150 cases of child sex abuse were brought before the Guards in Carlow, the second smallest county in Ireland.
On a related theme, The Irish Independent, on 13 April 2002, stated that, in April 2002, there were 6 priests in jail and 6 members of religious orders, out of 350 people serving sentences for sex offences in the Republic.
There are 5,600 priests in England and Wales. Out of 110,000 men aged over twenty and convicted of child sex abuse, 21 were priests or members of religious orders, that is, 0.019% of the total. As a proportion of all priests, those convicted of child sex abuse constitute 0.375%. The British National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children says that 40% of such abusers are fathers or stepfathers, 30% are other family members, and 4% are teachers, doctors, priests or lodgers.