The first ten months of 2019 saw some 3,752 reported cases of child abuse and while there is much more to be done, the country has come a far way in relation to the response to the scourge, Director of the Child Care & Protection Agency (CC&PA) Ann Greene says.
This sentiment was echoed by her assistant director Leota Langford, who said the agency has seen more community involvement in the fight and she credited this to the continuous awareness programmes employed. Importantly, Langford noted that some persons in the past were skeptical about reporting as they felt that their names would have been called but now they are more comfortable making the reports because of the reassurance that their identities will remain anonymous.
Like Greene, Langford has been with the agency from its inception and she said a lot has happened since even with the way the police respond. Now, there are special sections in some police stations that deal specifically with child sexual abuse even though there remains some challenges with police investigations, especially the length of time files take to meet the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
“I am feeling very satisfied where we are today but there is a whole lot of work to be done, we are on the right track and the communities are getting more involved,” Greene told the Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview.
She said with more awareness programmes, which also see social media being used as persons can now make reports through the agency’s Facebook page with immediate responses, more reports come in. The agency also has awareness programmes on the radio in two Amerindian languages and this has resulted in more reports of abuse being made.
Particularly in Region Nine, figures from January to October have shown an increase and Greene said she believes this trend will continue. She attributed this to the fact that the region now has two officers who are engaged in awareness programmes that begin from play school, which are aimed at letting the children know what safe and unsafe touch is, and encouraging them to tell when the latter occurs.
“We have to bridge the gap between culture and law, to bridge that gap we have to educate and reeducate and we have to start with the young children,” Greene told this newspaper.
Focus is also being placed on “sexual regulation” which Greene explained is giving children a first line of defence against child sexual abuse.
“No child should be burdened with protecting themselves but there is a first line of defence [which] is giving them the awareness. Sexual regulation is understanding that sex is not done between father and daughter, brother and sister, uncle and niece. This is how we are bridging the gap, educating the young ones and the adults and because of all this awareness there has been a shoot up in reports,” Greene said.
Decrease
Meanwhile, according to the agency’s figures, for the months January to October, the figure of 3,752 has shown a decrease of 14.1% in the total reported cases of child abuse compared to 2018. While the reported cases for 2018 was 4,368, in 2017, there were 3,470 reports.
The agency said that from the data analysed for the period, there have been at least two children being abused every hour with 10 children being abused per day. Children between the ages of 8 to 13 had the highest rate of reported cases at 17.7% followed by children between the ages of 4 to 7 with 15%; the rate of reported cases for the 14 to 18 age group stood at 12.7% with the 0 to 3 age range being 10.7%.
As it relates to the regions’ measured abuse rate, Region Three had the highest reported rate with 24.4, Region Seven 20.7, Region Four 16.2, Region Ten 10.9, Region One 10.7, Region Two 8.8, Region Six 8.8, Region Eight 8.6 and Region Nine 8.5.
The figures further showed that neglect was the most common form of child abuse with sexual abuse being the second highest.
As it relates to sexual abuse, Region Seven accounted for the highest rate with 7.7 per 1000 children being sexually abused followed by Region Nine with 4.6 per 1000 children and Region Four with 4.1 per 1000 children being abused. The age group 14 to 18 years recorded the highest rate of sexual abuse with 6.1 per 1000 children followed by the 8-13 years age group with 4.1, the 4 to 7 years age group saw 2.1 and the 0 to 3 years age group saw .05 per 1000 children.
And figures for teenage pregnancy showed Region Eight recording the highest rate of teenage pregnancy with 8 per 100 children, Region Nine with 5.2 per 1000 children and Region Seven with 4.5 per 1000 children.
Troublingly, the data analysed reveals that 96% of the perpetrators were family members of child abuse victims with the great majority being parents (mother, father and step-father) who accounted for 87% of the total number of perpetrators.
‘Still not the true picture’
But even though there has been an increase in the reports of child abuse, Greene pointed out that this is still not the true picture, especially when it comes to sexual abuse since these are hidden crimes done behind doors and some victims are not even aware that they are being abused.
She said one has to bear in mind that the culture and social norms, which are unique to some districts, also contribute to the matters not being reported and this, she said, needs some attention.
Greene said with the introduction of sexual offences courts, matters have been moving much faster as in the past it took about seven years for a matter to be completed. She gave the instance of a victim who was abused at the age of 13 and was kept in care until she was 18 and the matter was still in court. The victim left care and refused to attend court when the matter was finally called.
Paper committal
“It really use to take too long, but with all the assistance it is easier now for the victims to go and give evidence and now there is paper committal,” Greene noted.
She remembered four-year-old twin victims who were badgered by a lawyer while on the witness stand. “Imagine, he was asking them if they wine back and I could remember them standing there with their hands behind their backs and shaking from side to side and they stopped talking. Before they had said he told them not to talk and how he would buy fry rice for them. That case stayed with me and I knew something had to be done…” Greene said.
In September of this year, the third Sexual Offences Court was launched in Essequibo. Such courts are also present in Georgetown and Berbice
At the opening of that court, acting Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonnette Cummings-Edwards in giving an overview of the impact made by the Demerara and Berbice sexual offences courts since their establishment, had shared that for 2017 and 2018, there were 44 sexual offences cases, of which 31 ended in convictions, and 13 in acquittals.
As it related to the convictions, she had said that sentences ranged from nine years imprisonment, to life imprisonment. And as to the nature of these offences, there were seven cases of rape, 21 cases of rape of a child under 16 years, 15 cases of sexual activity with a child family member, and one case of carnal knowledge.
Further, figures presented then showed that thus far for 2019 (up to September), 42 sexual offences cases had been completed, reflecting a significant increase in the number of cases tried in an individual year. This increase was credited to the establishment of the sexual offences courts, and the Judiciary’s move to paper committals over preliminary inquiries for matters of this nature.
Of these cases, there had been 22 convictions, 18 acquittals, and six hung juries, four of which were the result of the accused being indicted on more than one charge. The sentences in the case of the convictions ranged from nine years imprisonment to life imprisonment. Regarding the nature of the sexual offences, they included nine cases of rape, 15 cases of rape of a child under 16 years, 14 cases of sexual activity with a child family member, one case of sexual activity with a child under 16 years, and two cases of carnal knowledge of a child under 15 years.
Statistics provided by the Chancellor also revealed that women and girls were the majority victims of sexual offences in Guyana. For the period 2017 and 2018, 41 of the 44 victims were female, with the remaining three being men/boys. The ages of those victims for that period ranged from three years to 25 years. Closer scrutiny also revealed that for that period, the ages for female victims ranged from three years, to 25 years, while the age of male victims ranged from three years to 14 years. In 2019, the trend continued, and saw woman and girls making up the majority of sexual offences victims. Of the 42 sexual offences cases completed, 39 involved female alleged victims, the remaining three being boys. The ages of the victims ranged from three years to 77. The age range of female alleged victims was three years to 77 years, while the range for male alleged victims was three to six years.
