The last seven years have seen a 16% rise in the number of child molestation
cases, the Ministry of Social Affairs said Sunday.
Some 1,464 children were sexually assaulted by the end of the first half of
2007, and 2,623 sexual abuse cases in children were reported in 2006.
The Ministry of Social Affairs' data revealed that most children fall prey to
sexual assault during the school year. Of those molested in 2006, 318 were
under the age of five, 717 were between the ages of six and eight, 37.4% of
those assaulted were boys and 62.6% girls.
The fickleness of numbers
The numbers, said the ministry's report, are probably higher. In many cases the
victims prefer not to file a complaint against their assailants.
The assailants in child molestation cases are not always adults: in the first
half of 2007, some 282 children and teenagers were interrogated by the police
department's youth division, on suspicion of perpetrating sexual offenses.
Children and teenagers who were victims of sexual assault are usually treated
by their municipal social workers. Since the problem began escalating, the
Social Affairs Ministry has been able to secure an additional $1.25 million to
its budget - all towards building eight new shelters for the long-term
treatment of these children.
The Ministry of Social Affairs' report is echoed by that of the National
Council for the Child: the council receives hundreds of reports a year, most of
them seeking counseling on life after the assault.
"Maybe all those on strike will finally wake up; the fact that the children are
devoid of structure is affecting their behavior," Dr. Itzhak Kedman, Head of
the National Council for the Child told Ynet Sunday, after hearing the report
on the 12-year-old girl who was allegedly drugged and raped by two 13-year-old
boys.
Kedman cites three main reasons which can make children behave like sexual
predator: "The main reason is the growing exposure to sexual content on the
internet. The younger children are, the less likely they are to differentiate
between reality and porn films," said Kedman.
The other two reasons are the judicial leniency shown to sex offenders and the
lack of proper treatments given to those molested. "It's a well documented fact
that children who were abused or molested grow up to be abusive adults. As long
as the State continues to ignore the problem nothing will change," he added.
MK Nadia Hilou (Labor-Meimad), head of the Knesset's Committee on Rights of the
Child, told Ynet that she intends to call and emergency session on the matter.
"
With the educational system on strike too many minors have no one looking out
for them. the committee will have to look into the recent reports of alcohol
and drug sales to minors, as well as decide on the criminal liability any
minors involved in such activity might be subject to," she says.
