‘Open up to children on sex education’
The Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Setina Aboagye, has advised parents to open up to their children, especially the girl child, on sex education.
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She said that was necessary to enable them to report cases of sexual abuse to them or any adult.
“Because we see the issue of sex education as a taboo, our children don’t feel comfortable talking about sex to their parents even when they are abused sexually”, she said, adding, “The culture where we treat issues related to sex education as a sacred topic is causing a lot of harm to our children; lets us educate our children on sex”.
ASP Aboagye was speaking to the Daily Graphic about some of the cases the unit recorded in the year 2014.
She said the unit recorded 976 cases out of which 936 were found to be true after investigations and gave the breakdown as 22 defilement cases, 88 assaults cases, 36 non-acceptance of pregnancies, 609 non-maintenance of homes, 24 deprivation of property, 18 abduction cases, and 13 cases of abandonment of children.
Decline in cases
In addition, she said, the figure had declined by 12.82 per cent compared to the 2013 statistics, noting “We recorded 1,115 cases in 2013 out of which 1,092 were true cases”.
ASP Aboagye said although the figures had declined, it still pointed to the fact that many cases were not reported to the police.
“Although the figures have dropped , there are cases that were not reported to the police”, she said, adding “People consider a lot of factors before reporting such cases to us so sometimes, after they have reported cases of sexual assault, they refuse to cooperate with us to prosecute the perpetrators”.
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She, however, expressed grave concern over instances where defilement and rape cases were handled as domestic issues.
“It is very sad that many people treat defilement and rape cases home because of the stigma and the protection of the family’s name”, she said, indicating, “Sexual assaults are criminal cases so don’t treat them to home”.
Educational campaign
ASP Aboagye said the unit had intensified its public education campaign to educate the various stakeholders about the consequences of sexual assaults and other domestic crimes.
“We are now educating students, teachers, parents, schools, churches and the general public about some of the consequences of sexual assault cases”, she noted.
Touching on cases of de-privatisation of property, she advised women to insist on having their names appended on a property they acquired together with their partners to enable them not to become victims.
“There is no law that prevents a woman from acquiring a property so make sure that when you acquire a property with your husband, you have your name on the document covering it”, ASP Aboagye advised.