Child abuse cases spike

The Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) says there was an increase in the number of reports of child abuse for the first six months of the year.

The OCR says between January to June, it received 4, 499 reports – an increase of 11.4 per cent over the corresponding period in 2011.

It says neglect was the most common report received, representing 27 per cent of all reports.

This was followed by reports of children who were considered to be in need of care and protection at 18 per cent, and children who were sexually abused which represented 17 per cent of the reports.

And the OCR says there was a general increase in reports for all major types of abuse, except for sexual abuse which saw a slight decrease.



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But the OCR notes that the decline in the overall sexual abuse category is caused by the decline in carnal abuse reports, which fell by 23 per cent.

It says there have been increases in all other major types of sexual abuse, which include a 66 per cent increase in buggery, 28 per cent increase in fondling and a 35 per cent increase in incest.

There was also a 31 per cent increase in oral sex and 56 per cent increase in rape.

According to the agency, with the exception of sexual abuse, reports received throughout the period were somewhat evenly distributed between girls and boys.

For sexual abuse, 92.9 per cent of the reports named girls as the victims.

REPORTED CHILD ABUSE CASES JAN – JUN 2012

Neglect - 2280
In need of care and protection - 1555
Sexual abuse - 1402
Exhibiting behavioural problems - 1226
Physical abuse - 1201
Emotional abuse - 676
Child labour - 95
Trafficking - 2

- Office of the Children’s Registry

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