Surge in sexual violence linked to normalisation of harassment
The Director Mary Through Cummins Problem Violence Cork Sexual Larry Crilly Said Society Picture: Centre Right Runs
The normalisation of harassment has been linked to the shockingly high levels of sexual violence, particularly among young people, highlighted by the Central Statistics Office.
University College Cork law professor Louise Crowley was involved in the creation of the CSO survey which revealed, amongst other things, that:
- 20% of women have been the victims of non-consensual sexual intercourse
- 52% of people aged 18 to 24 have experienced sexual violence
- Just 47% of sexual violence victims have told someone about it.
Prof Crowley pointed to a range of potential reasons why sexual violence was identified significantly more often among young people than those over 65.
“There’s the normalisation of everyday harassment,” she said. “The problem is when it becomes so normalised people don’t call it out, they take it as a given that it happens.”
She added: “Those who do this behaviour because they are not called out, they get this false consensus that this is OK. In turn, because they have this sense of permission, unchallenged permission. (Of) those who are so inclined their behaviour will escalate.”
On the low levels of people telling someone about what has happened to them she said: "People need to realise if someone comes to you and says ‘I think I was sexually assaulted’ then what you say in response is a form of intervention, a supportive intervention. What you say in response is so critical."
She urged people of all ages to take training so they know how to respond, adding: “Everybody can do something, we all have the capacity to do something.”
Overall, Prof Crowley, who heads up the UCC awareness training ‘Bystander Intervention Programme’, said everyone needs to step up now and respond to the “devastating” levels of sexual violence revealed by the CSO.
"“In light of the (CSO) stats, this is so important. We have to all now step up,” she said. “The prevalence is so huge that in some way, whether directly or indirectly, we are all affected. The life-changing trauma that comes from sexual violence is devastating.”
Cork Sexual Violence Centre director Mary Crilly said the problem runs right through society.
“It’s not just young people, we have a lot of women coming in in their 40s, 50s, 60s here who were raped as adults, not just as children,” she said.
She also called for more awareness of the wide range of incidents which make up sexual violence.
“It’s good to have these statistics there in black and white, to get rid of the stereotypical thing that sexual violence is a stranger pulling you in from the alley,” she said.
“The problem is people coming to us might say ‘it wasn’t really rape, he didn’t hit me’ or ‘I knew him’, because we learn rape is someone from the outside so people can find it hard to accept it was rape.”
The CSO found 78% or four in five victims knew the person harming them.
"What I see changing in a positive way is when people tell their friends or family now, they are being believed," she said.
UCC Bystander/Sexual Violence Centre Cork: 1800 496 496