{{Two thousand four hundred and five children were raped countrywide out of the 3 421 cases reported between January and October this year. }} <\/p>\n
According to police statistics, neighbours perpetrated 41 percent, while relatives accounted for 27 percent of the cases.<\/p>\n
Officer commanding the Victim Friendly Unit Assistant Commissioner Isabella Sergio yesterday said the rape of juveniles continued to increase countrywide.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an organisation we are obviously worried by the fact that children continue to bear the brunt of sexual offences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of reported cases have been perpetrated against children under the age of 18 years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Asst Comm Sergio was speaking at the launch of ZRP\u2019s Crime Awareness Campaign in Harare.<\/p>\n
She said rapists seemed to take advantage of children\u2019s naivety, vulnerability and inability to protect themselves.<\/p>\n
She said parents had become careless and left their children in the custody of potential rapists.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents leave minors in the custody of male relatives or their neighbours as they go about their activities. This exposes them to sexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asst Comm Sergio said during school days, some children go to and from school unaccompanied with some of them using shortcuts such as secluded areas exposing themselves to danger.<\/p>\n
Some parents even let their children sell various wares on street corners, shopping centres and residential homes where they could be subjected to sexual harassment and abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat has become more worrisome now is that boys under the age of 18 years have developed a habit of sexually abusing young girls below 12 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese teenage boys take advantage of unaccompanied minors left in their custody or waylay them in secluded footpaths, bushy areas and maize fields as well as along the distances between schools and homesteads especially in rural areas,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said lack of accommodation for families had also resulted in children sharing bedrooms with male relatives and this subjected them to abuse.<\/p>\n
Asst Comm Sergio said children were also lured with cash, private lessons and transport in private vehicles before being raped by some unscrupulous individuals, teachers, motorists and male relatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cRape of juveniles is characterised by late reporting. The majority of cases are rather discovered than disclosed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also expressed concern over date rape as some boyfriends were in the habit of putting noxious substances in their girlfriends\u2019 drinks before raping them.<\/p>\n
Asst Comm Sergio said domestic violence cases were also on the increase. <\/p>\n
So far, she said, 9 807 cases have been reported countrywide compared to last year\u2019s 8 296.<\/p>\n
\u201cMurders as a result of domestic violence also continue to rise. The link between domestic violence and technology has become very significant as a number of cases emanate from invasion of privacy particularly through cellphones and e-mails.<\/p>\n
\u201cInfidelity and misuse of family income are other major causes of domestic violence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She urged the public to report all cases or suspected cases of sexual abuse and domestic violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Two thousand four hundred and five children were raped countrywide out of the 3 421 cases reported between January and October this year. }} According to police statistics, neighbours perpetrated 41 percent, while relatives accounted for 27 percent of the cases. Officer commanding the Victim Friendly Unit Assistant Commissioner Isabella Sergio yesterday said the rape […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-4659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4659"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=4659"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=4659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}