Strong increase in number of alerts about sexual abuse

violence child abuse stepdaughtersChild abuse. Photo: pixabay.com

The number of alerts about sexual assault increased by 27% between 2016 to last year. Greater transparency and attention to the problem are probably the reasons.

 

“I think it’s because if you talk more about abuse and there is attention to it in the media, people report it more frequently,”said Chatrine Elholm, Director of the Center against Incest and Sexual Assault (SMISO) in Førde, to NRK news.

Last year, 3,504 people were registered at the centres, 902 more than in 2016, showed fresh numbers from the Children, Youth and Family Directorate (Bufdir). A large part of the increase concerned abuse on social media and elsewhere on the internet, according to Elholm.

Fresh numbers from the police directorate confirmed the trend. There are especially many online-related cases where offenders are under 14 years old, which represented a sharp increase of 21.3% in the number of registered sex offences in the first quarter of this year.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today