Total hours spent on calls to rape crisis counsellors almost doubled last year

Rape Crisis Network Ireland has seen a doubling of contacts to its helplines over the last decade, a new report reveals.

The statistics provide a wide overview of the sexual violence experienced by survivors who contacted the network’s seven rape crisis centres and helplines during 2020.

The report shows that callers spent much longer on the phone with crisis staff and volunteers last year, with the proportion on the line for more than 35 minutes rising from 1 per cent in 2019 to 10 per cent in 2020. Rape crisis counsellors spent a total 1,104 hours on helpline calls last year, compared to 647 hours in 2019.

The service attributes this increase to a variety of factors, including the network’s more flexible working patterns and more direct access for survivors to counsellors during the pandemic. However, the stay-at-home measures resulted in the “erosion or removal of survivors’ coping strategies” for dealing with pre-existing trauma, the report notes, and there was also an increased need for mental health resilience due to the lockdowns.

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The executive director of the crisis network, Dr Cliona Saidlear, said 2020 was an “incredibly traumatic year that no doubt triggered a surge in demand for support”. However, she warned the growth in contacts and appointments is part of a “pattern of increased need without a concomitant increase in funding” for the network.

“Our sector is consistently expected to deliver supports at lower costs,” she said, adding that in 2019 the organisation was struggling to attain 2008 levels of funding. She called on the Government to increase funding so the service can bolster its crisis helpline services and reduce waiting lists by training more specialised counsellors.

Sexual violence is a gendered crime, the report asserts, with women and girls making up 91 per cent of survivors who contact the network. Male survivors were much more likely to report having experienced sexual abuse when they were a child. Approximately three in four men contacting the service had been children when they were sexually abused, while this was the case for 45 per cent of females.

Men or boys were the perpetrators in the case of 96 per cent of survivors who contacted the service. The majority (87 per cent) of perpetrators of sexual violence had been adults.

The report documents the increasing vulnerability of girls to more extreme forms of sexual violence as they age. This is clear from when girls enter their teens, where they are more commonly disclosing rape as the dominant form of sexual crime perpetrated against them.

Nearly two-thirds of people who experienced sexual violence when under the age of 13 reported experiencing sexual assault, while almost a third had been raped. This ratio flipped in the 13 to 17 age bracket, with 64 per cent reporting they had been raped. Three in four survivors of sexual violence as an adult reported being raped.

Most people who reported experiencing sexual violence knew the perpetrator. For 60 per cent of survivors of sexual violence when they were under 13 the abuse had been perpetrated by a family member or relative, while 26 per cent had been a friend, acquaintance or neighbour and five per cent had been an authority figure.

A friend, acquaintance or neighbour was the most likely perpetrator of sexual violence against teenagers (49 per cent) and adults (43 per cent). A partner or ex-partner was the abuser for 18 per cent of 13-17-year-olds and a quarter of adults.

The Rape Crisis Network stated it fully supports a survivor’s choice to opt or not to report their experience to a formal authority, such as An Garda Síochána. About two-thirds of people who had not reported the crimes, while 32 per cent said they had alerted gardaí. This varied when broken down by age group, with people who experienced the sexual violence as children least likely to report the abuse (30 per cent).