There is a growing belief that sex has to be violent, leading to increased extreme violence in sexual assault.
“If you were to take COVID and the lockdown period out of it, it’s about 10% up from 2019,” she said.The report also found physical restraints were used in 34% of incidents last year compared to 25% in 2021, while 7.5% of cases involved the use of weapons.“A lot of people are getting a lot of their ideas about what sexual relationships should look like from pornographic material and that is highly violent,” she said.
According to the report, the majority of incidents took place in the assailant's home , while the majority of assailants were strangers to the victim or an acquaintance for more than 24 hours .SATUs across Ireland also failed to reach their target of seeing victims with three hours of a request for an examination.“It's hard to recruit staff, it’s hard to get staff at the unsocial hours, and sexual assault treatment units are busiest at nights,” she said.