Child Abuse High More Than 5,000 Cases Reported This Year, by Nadine Wilson, Jamaica Observer, November 4, 2011

Child Abuse High - More Than 5,000 Cases Reported This Year

By Nadine Wilson
Jamaica Observer
November 4, 2011

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Child-abuse-high---More-than-5-000-cases-reported-this-year_10097552

SINCE the start of this year, the Office of the Children's Registry (OCR) has received more than 5,700 reports of child abuse and over 800 cases of child sexual abuse, but Jamaica's first children's advocate, Mary Clarke, fears these statistics are not reflective of the actual number of children being ill-treated across the island.

"There is a disconnect between the number of cases reported and the number of actual cases and actual incidence of child abuse," Clarke said during Thursday's launch of a Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Project (CSAAP) by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands Young Adults Action Movement (UCYAAM) at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.

Moderator of the United Church of Jamaica and Cayman Island J Oliver Daley and former children’s advocate Mary Clarke unveil a poster during the launch of the church’s Young Adults Action Movement Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Project at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston on Thursday. (Photo: Jermaine Barnaby)

There have been 20,000 reports of child abuse and 5,743 incidence of sexual abuse reported to the OCR since it was established in 2007 to receive reports of all cases of abuse against children.

But Clarke, even while commending the police and other agencies for the work they have done in curtailing incidence of child abuse, believes more needs to be done to encourage people to report cases.

"I want to challenge the Office of the Children's Advocate — as I have done before — to tell us more about the reports that have come in to them. How many of them that have been investigated have been valid? How many arrests have been made? How many perpetrators have been removed from the homes as the law makes provision for, and in trying, how many convictions have been made? This will encourage more and more persons to report," said Clarke who demitted the office earlier this year.

The CSAAP was launched in an effort to heighten awareness of sexual abuse and reduce fear associated with the reporting of child abuse. The project is part of the church's response to the social and economic needs as well as to social issues affecting the most vulnerable within the society.

Clarke said overcoming fear continues to be one of the major challenges in the fight to end the sexual exploitation of the nation's children. Added to this, she said, is the fact that children are at times disbelieved by parents and others in authority.

"The fear of reprisal and the 'informer fi dead' culture; the fear of embarrassment and the guilt of the victim; the children's fear that nobody will believe them," said Clarke, are some of the reasons for children not reporting sexual and physical abuse.

"Family members are telling children, 'you get what you are looking for'; 'You pretending like you're a big man or woman so you get big man or woman something'; 'you invite it on yourself'," Clarke said.

In pointing out that most incidences of sexual abuse of children occurred in the afternoons after school and before parents get home from work, she called on guardians to provide safer after-school care for children.

In light of the increasing reports of child abuse, Greg Smith from the OCR said the church-affiliated project was timely.

"The fight against child abuse cannot be the job of any one individual or agency, it has to be a collaborative effort by all relevant stakeholders," he said.