The Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) has received over 2,700 abuse reports between January and October this year and biological and step parents were found to be the perpetrators in 85% of cases.
Speaking at the CPA’s annual staff conference, which was held virtually on Thursday, CPA Director Ann Greene said that of the 2,761 reports received and investigated, the agency found that mothers were the perpetrators in 51% of the cases, fathers in 26%, and step-parents in 8%. Grandparents, siblings, relatives, strangers and other were the perpetrators in the remainder of cases.
Neglect was the highest form of abuse reported, followed by sexual abuse, while Region One recorded the highest incidence rate for all categories of child abuse, with 17.8 per 1,000 children, followed by Region Seven with 15.2 per 1,000 children and Region 3 with 15.1 per 1,000 children.
