“There are cases where the mother did not realise the child was being raped and when she finds out, she refuses to report it for fear of losing her husband.”
Bukit Aman principal assistant director of the sexual, women and child Investigations division, Siti Kamsiah Hassan revealed that the police have noticed an increase in rape reports allegedly on minors by their older family members during the previous Movement Control Orders (MCO).
The assistant commissioner told Utusan Online that the increase in reports is due to children being stuck indoors and thus finding an opportunity to tell their abuse to a trusted relative. When they’re staying home for the majority of the day, the adults will probably notice a behavioural change in their children thus prompting the questions.
Bukit Aman sexual, women, and child investigation division principal assistant director, Superintendent Siti Kamsiah.
Most of the cases were children being abused for the first time in the last five to six years. There were only 259 reported incest cases in the whole of 2020, which is a reduction on average since the first MCO in March 2020.
“Most of the offenders are the victim’s own biological fathers and the victims have no knowledge of what sex is nor are they aware of what happened to them.”
The relatives committing these offences are as follow:
- Biological fathers (highest at 225 individuals)
- Step-fathers (188 individuals)
- Uncles (159 cases)
- Brothers (90 cases)
Since the perpetrators are their own family members, the victims are hesitant to report the case. When the victim progresses into adulthood and gets a better sense of what happened to them, this is when they proceed to report their abuse. Unfortunately, there are also cases of mothers not reporting cases due to the fear of losing their husbands.
Siti Kamsiah added that the most successfully prosecuted cases are the cases that were immediately reported. However, there have also been cases of the offenders admitting their guilt after they realise they were going to be exposed.
There were a total of 825 incest cases reported from 2018 till the end of 2020. The highest number of cases being reported was in 2019 (300 cases) followed by 2018 (266) and last year’s 259. During the period of time, 861 children aged six to 18 were victims of incest and the highest cases were those of teenage rape.
If you or anyone you know are experiencing abuse, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Talian Nur at 15999!
Also read: 16mo Korean Toddler Dies From Repeated Abuse, Police Ignored Multiple Reports & Warnings
