Almost half of all young Irish men believe that women increase the risk of sexual assault when they dress provocatively, according to a new survey.

The Irish based study shows that a significant proportion of male students believe that women who claim to have raped are partly responsible for it, the Evening Herald reports.

Almost 3,000 college students participated in a survey about their attitudes and awareness of sexual violence in May. The majority of students were in their late teens in first and second year of university.

According to the results, due to be published by the Sexual Violence Centre in Cork later this month, between 40 and 50 percent of males approved of the following three statements.

“Many women claim rape if they have consented to sexual relationships but have changed their minds afterwards (49.3percent of male students agreed with this statement).

“A woman who goes out alone at night or wears provocative clothing, puts herself in a position to be raped (44.6percent).

“Women often claim rape to protect their reputations (40.1percent)."

Ireland’s Sexual Violence Centre said that 80 percent of teenage sexual assault victims know their attacker and are less likely to report the incidents because of the Internet.

“One of the big concerns about modern technology is that incidents like these cannot be kept private, and young people will insult the victim, telling her she's a slut and so on," Mary Crilly, Director of the Sexual Violence Centre told the Evening Herald.
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"They will use the Internet as a way to favor the assailant, all he has to say is that it was consensual and the majority will believe him because double standards are alive and well.

"It's not so much pornography online that has caused this increase in the number of incidents, because plenty of young boys watch the same videos and are not raping anyone.

"The ones who do it, do it because they can get away with it, they can say the girl was a tease and with attitudes not changing but clothes getting more revealing, people will believe them."

"It's heartbreaking to hear a young 14- or 15-year-old say that they feel it was their own fault because they were wearing a short skirt or had a drink. We should be judging the people who chose to take advantage of them when they were in a vulnerable position more than anything else," she added.