Some 97 per cent of people who were sexually abused as a child and sought help from a Rape Crisis Centre last year had been abused by a family member or friend of the family, according the latest statistics from the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (RCNI).
The statistics, published today, show 1,840 women received face-to-face help from 14 centres around the State last year, an increase of 152 people or 8.4 per cent on 2007.
The vast majority (85 per cent) were women, with 15 per cent men and almost nine out of ten of them had experienced sexual violence.
"Survivors [of adult and child abuse] reported that perpetrators were overwhelmingly male (95.7 per cent). Almost nine out of every ten perpetrators (86.6 per cent) are known to the survivors."
Looking at those who had survived sexual abuse as children, the report finds 98 per cent of the abusers were male and two per cent female.
"Family members or relatives perpetrated one half (50.8 per cent) of sexual violence against children. Friends, acquaintances and neighbours were perpetrators in one third of cases (34 per cent).
"Sexual violence perpetrated by a stranger accounted for only 2.8 per cent of sexual violence experienced by children, compared with 19.6 per cent of sexual violence perpetrated against adults."
The figures underlined an urgent need for action to protect children in the home, said RCNI Executive Director, Fiona Neary.
She said there were vulnerable children in homes across the State, who were known by HSE to be at risk and yet who were receiving no intervention.
"There are social work posts remaining unfilled and at-risk children who are not being safeguarded.
"At a time when the Government is continuing to drag its heels in putting a Constitutional referendum on children's rights before the people the family home remains unsafe for some children."
The statistics also showed three in every ten survivors had been abused by more than one abuser. In some cases the abusers knew of the other abuser(s) while in others the survivor had been abused as a child and was re-abused later as an adult.
Ms Neary also called for greater partnership with between the HSE and the RCNI, particularly as regards funding. She said funding decisions were made on a fragmented, local basis which resulted in wide disparities in funding levels.
