Physical abuse and sexual offences against women in the Western Division increased in 2022, says Fiji Police Force crime prevention officer West Inspector Bulou Melania Vaisewa.
While speaking at the 4th Multidisciplinary Conference in Lautoka last week, she said these crimes involved women from the age 18 and above.
“The offences against persons category include physical abuse and sexual offences,” she said.
“Of the 934 total crimes against women cases recorded in the Western Division in 2022, 87 per cent or 799 cases comprise of assault related offences and 14 per cent or 135 cases were sexual offences.
“So these increased by 61 per cent. “84 cases were recorded in 2021, 235 cases were recorded in 2022.”
She said crimes against children had also increased. “For the year 2022, crimes against children recorded a total of 547 cases while in 2021, a total of 491 cases was recorded.
“There was an increase of 11 per cent. Sexual related offences increased by two per cent while assault related offences increased by 7 per cent.”
She said the Fiji Police Force had been working closely with NGOs and community groups in their efforts to raise awareness.
Insp Bulou added that such offences could be reduced if community and civil society groups worked alongside the police to reduce crime rates within their communities.
