Irish traveller women and sexual assault: Patterns of engagement with sexual assault treatment units

To detail the attendance of female Irish Travellers at the national Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) network.

Retrospective cross-sectional study examining the attendance of female patients who identified as members of the Irish Traveller community at the national SATU network between 2017 and 2023 and comparing them with all other female attenders.

There were 5942 female attendances during the study period, of which 54 were Irish Traveller women with a mean age of 25.9 ± 11.5 years; with 35 (64.8%) presenting within 7 days of assault. Most attended with police involvement (40, 74.1%), assaults most commonly occurred in the victim's home (14, 25.9%) or outdoors (13, 24.1%), and perpetrators were frequently family members (13, 24.1%), intimate/ex-intimate partners (12 combined, 22.2%), acquaintances of more than 24 h (8, 14.8%), or strangers (9, 16.7%). Compared with other female attenders, Irish Traveller women were significantly less likely to present within 24 h (24.1% vs 39.7%; odds ratio [OR] 0.48 P = 0.02) and to report alcohol use in the preceding 24 h (OR 0.33, P < 0.001), but were significantly more likely to report a family member (OR 8.25, P < 0.001) or an intimate/ex-intimate partner (OR 2.04, P = 0.03) as the assailant.

This study provides the first national analysis of Irish Traveller women attending SATU in Ireland and highlights distinct differences in the patterns of perpetrator relationship and timing of presentation compared with other female attenders.