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Half of those reporting sex assault were under 18

One in four (26%) victims who reported historic incidents of sexual offences in 2022 were boys under 18 when the crime incident occurred, CSO reserved statistics show.

However, when the incident was reported, just 3% of victims were boys under 18,  compared to 19% for females.

In 2022, just over four in five (83%) victims of reported incidents of sexual offences were female, and over half (51%) of all victims were under 18 when the incident took place.

Gap of over ten years

Two-thirds (66%) of victims of sexual offences reported the incident within a year of occurrence in 2022 and one in five (20%) reported the incident more than 10 years after the date of occurrence.

• Males were the victims in seven in ten (71%) reported homicides in 2022 and nearly six in ten (57%) reported incidents of physical assault and related offences,
• In 2021, males were the suspected offenders for the majority of detected homicide, sexual and physical assault offences,
• In just over a fifth (22%) of detected sexual offences in 2021, the suspected offender and victim were both male, while three in every four (76%) involved a male suspected offender and female victim.