KEVIN LALOR, PhD,
Madam, - Carol Coulter (November 27th) notes that 78 cases of "unlawful carnal knowledge of a female" are recorded in Garda statistics for 2001. The offence of unlawful carnal intercourse refers to intercourse with a female aged less than 17 years. The offence is committed by the male; neither his age nor her consent are a defence.
The incidence of unlawful carnal intercourse in Ireland is considerably higher than these 78 cases recorded by the Gardai. For example, a recent survey of college students found that 10 per cent of females reported having had sexual intercourse before their sixteenth birthday. If this proportion is generalisable to the general population, we can assume the true incidence of unlawful carnal intercourse in Ireland is many thousand per annum, not the 78 recorded by Gardai.
This represents an enormous gulf between what we, as a society, say is unlawful and what actually happens in real life. - Yours, etc.
KEVIN LALOR, PhD, Department of Social Sciences, DIT, Dublin 6.