Groups working with victims of crime have questioned the accuracy of crime figures from the Department of Justice, particularly the indication that the incidence of rape had decreased.
The figures, issued by the Department on Thursday, cover the third quarter of this year. They seem to show that, although sexual assaults are up 42 per cent on the same period last year, rape of a female is down 20 per cent.
The number of rapes against women is recorded as having fallen from 84 during July, August and September last year to 67 in the period this year.
Rather than welcoming the apparent decline, Ms Breda Allen, chairwoman of the Rape Crisis Centre, calls the record "worrying and very serious".
"When I look at our figures, comparing figures from January to August 2002 with January to August 2003, the number of women coming to us with a recent rape have increased 10 per cent."
She said the difference would seem to indicate that fewer women were prepared to report rape to the Garda. Overall, she said, fewer than one-third of the centre's clients were prepared to report having been raped.
"The problem is not so much with the Garda but with the legal system and what it puts rape victims through," Ms Allen said.
Ms Ann Meade, a spokeswoman for Victim Support, said a more accurate picture of the levels of crime would be provided in the national crime survey to be produced by the National Crime Office for the first time next year.
This, she said, would be a survey of the actual level of crime committed rather than just the levels of reported crime.
Thursday's figures appear to indicate violent assaults were down by 31 per cent, with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, commenting that the drop "corresponds with my intuitive feeling that the public order issues have improved very significantly over the last number of months".
However, Ms Meade said her staff's sense was that crimes and assault, especially against young men, were certainly up.
Rape, she agreed, was also less likely to be reported.
"There are many victims of rape who do not report. We know the immediate reaction of most women is that they do not want to report rape, and our role is very much one of hand-holding until they feel comfortable with reporting the assault, if they ever do," she said.
Last year's Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland (SAVI) report found that 10 per cent of adult women had experienced unwanted sexual contact involving penetrative sex in their lifetimes. Just 7.8 per cent had reported this to the Garda.
