One in six sex crimes recorded in Ireland in 2020 committed by children

The CSO this morning released the latest figures for recorded crime victims in 2021, and suspected offenders in 2020.

According to the figures, at 98pc, the vast majority of these crimes were committed by men, while the attackers were children in one-in-six cases.

More than 80pc of sexual offence victims were female, with more than half under 18 years of age when they were attacked.

The 69 per cent of victims of reported homicide crime incidents in 2021 were men who also accounted for over half of all reported physical assault and related offences.

Nearly half of all homicide offence victims were aged 45 years of age or over, and 23pc were aged between 18 and 29, while 10pc under 18.

The proportion of victims of reported physical assault and related offences who were female fell slightly down to 44pc from 45pc on the previous year in 2021.

However, these figures are higher than the 41pc recorded in both 2019 and 2018.

The CSO said this may be attributable to the relatively larger decline in the number of male assault victims in 2020 and 2021 linked to the varying levels of Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time.

The findings are contained in the latest release from the CSO – Recorded Crime Victims 2021 and Suspected Offenders 2020 of serious crimes as recorded by gardaí.

Jim Dalton, Statistician, said: “The figures published today provide detail on the age and sex of both victims and suspected offenders of serious crimes reported to An Garda Síochána.

“In one in seven (15 per cent) cases of detected sexual violence in 2020, both the victim and suspected offender were under 18 years.

“Four out of every five (82pc) cases of reported sexual violence incidents in 2021 involved a female victim and more than half (56pc) of victims were aged under 18 years when the offence took place.

“The vast majority (98pc of suspected offenders of detected sexual violence reported in 2020 were male and one in six were under 18 years when the incident took place.

Males accounted for seven out of ten (69pc) victims of reported homicide crime incidents in 2021. Nearly half (49pc) of all homicide offence victims were aged 45 years or more. One tenth (10pc) were under 18 and nearly a quarter (23pc) were aged between 18 and 29 years.

Over half (56pc) of victims of reported physical assault and related offences were male in 2021.

The proportion of victims of reported physical assault and related offences who were female was 44pc in 2021, down slightly from 2020 (45pc).