Four in ten adults reported experiencing ‘sexual violence’ over their lifetime, according to a major new survey from the CSO, with young women suffering the most.

‘Sexual violence’ is broadly defined in the study as “a range of non-consensual experiences, from non-contact experiences to non-consensual sexual intercourse.”

There were clear differences by sex and age in terms of experiences of sexual violence. 52% of women have experienced sexual violence compared with 28% of men.

Young women (aged 18-24) reported the highest levels of sexual violence experienced in their lifetime at 65%.

By contrast, the corresponding figure for older women (aged 65 plus) was 35%.

Dr. Clíona Sáidléar, Executive Director, Rape Crisis Network Ireland, discussed the findings on Morning Ireland and said that only some of the difference in reported levels of sexual abuse between the age groups is due to a greater ability by young people to be “able to name something”.

But she added that “the CSO would have been very careful to control for that”. She said another explanation for the difference is the existence of “emerging forms of sexual violence” including “digitally enabled” sexual abuse, which is “much higher for the younger age group”.