THE NUMBER of reported rapes and sexual assaults has declined almost everywhere across the Republic since 2004, new Central Statistics Office crime trends for all Garda divisions have revealed.
The decline comes despite groups who deal with the victims of sex crimes reporting an increase in demand for their services.
In the Garda’s western region, which includes Clare, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Longford, the number of cases reported has almost halved in the past five years.
Some 166 cases were reported in the region in the first nine months of 2004 compared to just 92 cases in the first nine months of 2009.
In Dublin, the decline in reporting has also been very significant, with a fall-off of just over a third in the number of cases of rape and sexual assault cases reported to gardaí in the first nine months of 2009 compared with 2004.
The overall falloff in reporting across the Republic has been 24 per cent; 1,372 cases in the first nine months of 2004 compared to 1,049 in the first nine months of 2009.
The Rape Crisis Network Ireland, which is the umbrella body for groups working with victims of rape and sexual assault, said the new figures reflected a complex picture.
The network’s head of policy and communications, Clíona Saidléar, said the fall in reporting was probably not due to any real fall in the level of rape and sexual assault across the State.
She believed the figures from the late 1990s onwards had been driven higher because many people who had been abused as children by members of the clergy had reported their cases for the first time.
Ms Saidléar said most of these cases had now been reported. This had taken many historical cases out of the current crime data resulting in the fall captured in the CSO statistics. She did not believe victims were becoming more reluctant to come forward.
“I think there has been a significant cultural change in the period since 2004 that we’re talking about,” she said.
“People are becoming more open and victims are coming forward and telling us more and the Garda more.”
The new figures show that of the 28 Garda divisions across the State, the number of rapes and sexual assaults fell in all but five divisions since 2004.
These five are: Louth (up fourfold since 2004), Cork north (up 27 per cent), Limerick (up 47 per cent), Meath (up 39 per cent), Kildare (up 2.5 per cent) and Waterford (up 60 per cent).
Some of the increase in Louth is due to the multiple complaints against former hospital consultant Dr Michael Shine (78). He was acquitted in court but was struck off by the Irish Medical Council.
