Child Molestation Statistics (Serbia)

The statistics cited here on child sexual abuse in Serbia are very similar to what we see elsewhere in the world: 90% of the victims are girls, 38% of the perpetrators were the fathers of the victim.

http://glassrbije.org/E/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9110&Itemid=28

CHILD MOLESTING IN SERBIA
November 22, 2009

According to the research of the Incest Trauma Center, in the period from September 2008 to the same month this year, more than 55% of reported cases of child molesting relates to the sexual abuse of minors. These inglorious statistics indicate that in 90% the victims were girls, and in 38% of cases the perpetrator was the father, while in the rest of the cases a person known to the victim and its family. The report from Jelica Tapuskovic.

Child molesting does not only refer to psychological and physical maltreatment, but also the sexual abuse, including the obscene phone calls, exhibitionism, voyeurism, rape attempts, child pornography, prostitution, incest etc. The consequences of child molesting are multi-layered, because they do not effect only their mental development, but also their social behavior. The Incest trauma center reports the results of the annual research, and it is explained that with child sexual abuse the physical enforcement and violence are not necessary, but quite often used are the power and authority over the victim, while the physical enforcement was only used when the perpetrator feared the victim might report the crime. It is therefore not unusual that the victims only report the abuse after prolonged periods of suffering. Besides that, the exact number of abused boys is unknown, since in the patriarchal environment such situations are kept secret.

One of the problems lies in the fact that there is no good communication among all the services that register the victims and sexual abuse, so the exact numbers cannot be precisely established. According to director of the Incest Trauma Center Dusica Popadic, a perpetrator usually does not stop at just one crime. “At issue is commonly the serial perpetrator. Sexual abuse has the characteristic of repeated crime. We usually have the information that only one of the children is the victim, but most often several children have suffered from the same molester, but it is unknown. I have to point out to 14% of the cases where one molester used to abuse as many as four children”, warns Popadic. She has underlined that in the majority of instances, the crime is reported by the victim herself, and less frequently by the mother, a relative or an acquaintance of the family.

Natalija Micunovic from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy has stated that it is necessary to establish cooperation among all competent institutions – police, social protection centers, health institutions. “We need unifying protocols that would improve that cooperation. Therefore, the ministry has initiated the project entitled ‘Battle against sexual and family violence’, which should help in resolving and preventing this problem, not only over women, but also over children”. The project should start on November 25 and last until December 11, while it will include round table discussions in search for the solution to the improvement of the legislative framework, making of a strategy and raising the public awareness of this problem.