The vast majority of children under the age of 13 who are victims sexual violence are subjected to the abuse either in their home, or the perpetrator's home, according to the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland.
The RCNI has launched its Annual Rape Crisis Statistics 2022 report, which highlights post-pandemic rape crisis statistics.
It includes insights regarding patterns of disclosure.
The report shows that all indicators of survivors' need for services have risen since before the pandemic, with 13% more people are taking up counselling and support compared to the years prior to 2020.
Rape crisis centres nationwide have reported 10% more appointments and a 7% increase in accompaniments to Sexual Assault Treatment Units.
An area of concern highlighted in the report relates to patterns of disclosure.
The RCNI has found that those abused in early childhood wait much longer than other survivors before disclosing what happened.
Those who are under the age of 13 when subjected to sexual violence often wait decades before they are ready to disclose what happened - 44% wait longer than ten years.
The report found 24% of this age group disclose the abuse within a year of it happening.
For survivors aged between 13 and 17 at the time of abuse, fewer waited over a decade to tell someone (15%) while 50% disclose within a year.
The abuse for that age cohort was most likely to occur in a car or outside (30%), or in the perpetrator’s home (27%).
The report notes that boys' vulnerability to sexual violence decreases significantly as they grow into adulthood, while girls' vulnerability to sexual violence decreases less significantly as they become adults.
For those over 18 years old, most incidents of sexual violence were reported in the survivor's home, or the perpetrator's home (54% in total) although a significant proportion (34%) took place elsewhere, which could include a friend or acquaintance’s home, a hotel, pub or nightclub, workplace or student accommodation.
The report found 65% of survivors who were adults at the time of the abuse disclose what had happened within a year, while 6% waited decades to tell someone.
Childline has reported that more than 100 contacts were made to it in the past month related to sexual abuse.
In a statement issued yesterday, it said that almost a quarter 120,000 contacts made each year are classified "level 4" - the most concerning.
It said one of its volunteers spoke to a nine-year old girl who rang several times about how scared she was of the monster who came to her bedroom at night. She was being sexually abused by a member of her family.
Another young caller was also being abused at home.
She had been calling Childline regularly and by talking to volunteers, she built up courage to protect and save her siblings from her horrifying experience according to the charity.
Meanwhile, CARI, the charity that provides therapeutic services for children aged between three and 18 years, announced earlier this month that it was being forced to close after 34 years in operation.
The charity said it could no longer run essential support services on the budget it was allocated for next year by Tusla and it called on the Government to intervene.
At the time of the announcement, CARI had 134 children on its waiting list who it said would lose access to its specialised services.
