Ten per cent of women in Ireland have been raped and 42 per cent have suffered some form of sexual abuse as adults or as children, according to a new report by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC).
Some 28 per cent of men reported have being sexually abused and 3 per cent said they had been raped the report claims.
Ms Muireann O'Briain, chief executive officer of the DRCC, said one of the most worrying findings was the low numbers of abuse sufferers who had reported the incident or sought help for sexual abuse.
The report claims that one in five girls and one in six boys in Ireland have experienced "contact sexual abuse" before the age of 17. Contact sexual abuse is classified in the report as touching or penetration. Non-contact sexual abuse is described as exposure and the showing of pornographic material.
The prevalence of sexual abuse in early childhood was of particular concern, said Ms O'Briain. Some 67 per cent of girls and 62 per cent of abused boys suffered the abuse before the age of 12.
The high number of perpetrators aged under 17 years-of-age was also a cause of serious concern, the report noted.
Reporting to the Garda was found to be "strikingly low".
The report questioned 3,000 randomly selected adults and sought to establish the extent and nature of sexual abuse and sexual violence in Ireland.
It was carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland.
