A worrying trend of crimes against women and children continue to plague Fiji’s communities, especially with a rising number of perpetrators being related to the victims.
Statistics released by the Fiji Police Force yesterday show crimes against women and children committed within domestic settings was a major concern.
Last month, the Western Division recorded increases in reported crimes against women while the remaining four divisions recorded decreases.
According to police, while the overall crime rate for June had decreased by 11 per cent, the fact remained that most crimes against women and children were committed by persons in positions of trust within a family.
In June, there were 94 child victims, 68 girls and 26 boys, and 76 per cent of the perpetrators in these cases were male family members.
Police also noted that there were 24 incidents, involving multiple counts of sexual-related crimes such as rape, indecent assault, and sexual assault.
In these cases, all the victims were under 18 years.
In total, there were 177 women victims, a majority of whom fell between 18 to 38 years. About 43 cases were domestic related.
Additionally, 74 per cent of all offences were assault-related with assault causing actual bodily harm being the most common form of victim abuse.
According to the Fiji Police Force, it is prioritising community policing efforts by continuously reaching out to stakeholders through the vanua, religion and civil society groups to help address these issues.
