8 Apr 2013

Fiji police anticipate drop in sex abuse figures because of awareness programmes

6:27 pm on 8 April 2013

Fiji police say they are expecting the child sexual abuse statistics for the first quarter of this year to have dropped, citing the success of awareness programmes.

The Police Director of Operations Rusiate Tudravu says police statistics will only show the numbers of abuse cases reported directly to the police, but that closer cooperation with the non-government organisations has helped.

The figures for the first quarter of 2013 will be released later this week and Mr Tudravu says police will verify them before publication.

He says the challenge of sex abuse in a developing country like Fiji is made worse with the rise of global influences.

"We are expecting a drop, a decline in these crimes against children in the future given the current arrangements and strategies and programmes that we have, we are looking at it. But we have to understand that we are still a developing country. Technology and other things that are coming in, the effect of globalisation which is coming in."

Rusiate Tudravu commended the work of Fiji's NGOs in tackling child sexual abuse.