DRCC Press Release: USI study shows 16% of students experience Sexual Harassment

It is very worrying that outcomes from Student Study shows that little has changed in victims’ experiences of sexual violence in 11 years in Ireland

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) welcomes the publication of the “SAY SOMETHING” research which has been published by the Union of Students of Ireland, with the support of Cosc, the National office for the prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence.

            Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, Chief Executive of the DRCC said: “In 2002 the SAVI (Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland) Report was published. For the first time we had a comprehensive study on attitudes and beliefs in Ireland to sexual violence. This was a ground breaking study and while we need a second SAVI report to make appropriate comparisons to inform policy, studies like the “SAY SOMETHING” research completed by the Union of Students of Ireland, gives us very valuable information about attitudes and beliefs to sexual violence among students.

Unfortunately the outcomes from the “SAY SOMETHING” research confirm what we learned from SAVI 11 years ago, that the largest proportion of victims of unwanted sexual experiences identified the perpetrators as being acquaintances.

• 1 in 5 women surveyed in “SAY SOMETHING” experienced some form of unwanted sexual experience with 11% experiencing unwanted sexual contact.
• 1 in 5 women reported experiencing contact sexual assault as adults in SAVI.

The two most frequently cited reasons given for not reporting, were that the victims did not believe the incident was serious enough to report and that they did not think what had happened was a crime. Both reports show that victims still do not report because of feelings of shame and guilt.

A big concern is the gap in knowledge of the specialist support services that are now available.  From the “SAY SOMETHING” research it is also evident that there is still a big gap in how we educate young people about sex, relationships and the responsible use of alcohol. We welcome the proposed national campaign to raise the awareness of the issues and of the supports available to students and we look forward to working with them to develop and deliver these campaigns.”

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, Chief Executive, DRCC                        01 6614911 / 086 809 9618