Number of male victims of sex crimes rose by 54% – CSO

By Cate McCurry, PA

The number of male victims of recorded sexual offences rose by 54 per cent between 2023 and 2024, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

The increase related mainly to a near doubling of such crime incidents that were reported by males more than a year after the occurrence.

In seven out of 10 (70 per cent) recorded crime incidents of sexual offences in 2023 that had been detected by 2025, the suspected offender was known to the victim.

According to the CSO data of Recorded Crime Victims 2024, the number of female victims of sexual offences increased marginally from 2,387 in 2023 to 2,419 victims in 2024.

Women remained the main victims of recorded crime incidents of sexual offences, accounting for three out of every four victims in 2024, compared with 26 per cent for males.

The suspected offender was known to the victim in seven out of every 10 (70 per cent) recorded crime incidents of sexual offences in 2023 that had been detected by 2025.

Looking at the nature of the relationship in more detail, the CSO found that in 16 per cent of detected crime incidents of sexual offences, the suspected offender was a friend or acquaintance of the victim and was a blood relative in 13 per cent of incidents.

Current or former intimate partners or spouses accounted for 8 per cent of all suspected offenders for this type of offence.

The share for other suspected offenders known to the victim was 18 per cent and this relationship category would be considered less personal in nature to the above categories.

The suspected offender was a stranger to the victim in three out of every 10 (30 per cent) such detected crime incidents.

In 2024, 50 per cent of victims of crime incidents of sexual offences were aged under 18 years at the time of occurrence.

Most other victims were aged between 18 and 44 years.

In 2024, three in every ten sex crime victims reported the incident more than 10 years after it occurred.

This was up from 22 per cent in 2023 and 21 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, seven out of every 10 crime incidents of harassment and related offences in 2023 that were detected by 2025 involved a female victim.

In most cases, the suspected offender was a male.

There were 77 recorded victims of crime incidents of homicide and related offences in 2024, down 11 from the 88 victims recorded in 2023.

Of the total victims, 41 were by murder or manslaughter while the remaining 36 were by dangerous driving leading to death.

Three out of four victims of all crime incidents of homicide offences in 2024 were male while 26 per cent were females.

There were 24,142 recorded victims of crime incidents of attempts/threats to murder, assaults, and harassment offences in 2024 and this was the highest over the four-year period 2021 -2024.

Within this category, 62 per cent of assault victims were male compared with 38 per cent for females.

When assessing detected crime incidents of attempts/threats to murder, assaults and harassment, friends or acquaintances accounted for 13 per cent of suspected offenders.

Current or former intimate partners and spouses accounted for 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively of suspected offenders.

The share of blood relatives among suspected offenders was 7 per cent while it was 5 per cent for people in a position of authority or in a care relationship with the victim.

The share for other suspected offenders known to the victim was 23 per cent.

In more than a third (35 per cent) of such crime incidents, the suspected offender was a stranger to the victim.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.