Data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows a 54 per cent rise in the number of male victims of recorded sexual offences between 2023 and 2024, reports Breaking News.
This increase was primarily due to a near doubling in the number of such cases reported by men more than a year after the incident occurred.
In 70 per cent of recorded sexual offence incidents from 2023 that were solved by 2025, the victim knew the suspected offender, reports Breaking News.
Figures from the CSO’s Recorded Crime Victims 2024 report indicate a slight increase in female victims of sexual offences, from 2,387 in 2023 to 2,419 in 2024.
Women continued to make up the majority of recorded victims of sexual offences in 2024, representing three out of every four cases, while men accounted for 26 per cent, reports Breaking News.
In 70 per cent of 2023’s recorded sexual offence incidents detected by 2025, the suspected perpetrator had a known relationship with the victim.
Delving further into the nature of these relationships, the CSO found that in 16 per cent of detected cases, the suspect was a friend or acquaintance of the victim, and in 13 per cent, the suspect was a blood relative, reports Breaking News.
Suspected offenders who were current or former intimate partners or spouses made up 8 per cent of these cases.
Another 18 per cent of suspects fell into a broader category of being known to the victim, though in less personal relationships than those mentioned above.
Strangers accounted for 30 per cent of suspected offenders in these detected incidents, reports Breaking News.
In 2024, half of the victims in recorded sexual offence cases were under the age of 18 when the offence occurred.
The majority of remaining victims were aged between 18 and 44.
That same year, 30 per cent of victims reported the sexual offence more than 10 years after it took place, reports Breaking News.
This marked an increase from 22 per cent in 2023 and 21 per cent in 2022.
Separately, 70 per cent of detected harassment and related offences from 2023 involved female victims, reports Breaking News.
In the majority of those cases, the alleged perpetrator was male.
In 2024, there were 77 recorded victims of homicide and related offences, a decrease from 88 in 2023, reports Breaking News.
Of those, 41 were classified as murder or manslaughter, while 36 were attributed to dangerous driving causing death.
Three out of every four victims of homicide offences in 2024 were men, while 26 per cent were women, reports Breaking News.
There were 24,142 recorded victims of attempted murder, threats to kill, assaults, and harassment in 2024 – the highest number recorded between 2021 and 2024.
Within that group, 62 per cent of assault victims were male, and 38 per cent were female, reports Breaking News.
When looking at solved cases of attempted murder, threats, assaults, and harassment, 13 per cent of suspected offenders were friends or acquaintances of the victim.
Current or ex-intimate partners and spouses made up 8 per cent and 6 per cent of suspects respectively, reports Breaking News.
Suspected offenders who were blood relatives accounted for 7 per cent, while 5 per cent were people in authority or in care roles over the victim.
Another 23 per cent of suspects were people known to the victim but not in a close relationship, reports Breaking News.
In 35 per cent of cases, the alleged perpetrator was a stranger.
If you have been affected by any of the topics mentioned in this article, you can contact the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, use the text or webchat services at drcc.ie/services/helpline/, or visit Rape Crisis Help, reports Breaking News.
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