Child abuse set records for cases, victims in '06

The Japan Times
Friday, Feb. 16, 2007
Source: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070216b2.html

Kyodo News - The number of child-abuse reports investigated in 2006 rose by 34 percent from the previous year to 297 cases and the number of children involved rose by 38 percent to 316, both record highs, the National Police Agency announced Thursday.

The number of people police identified as abusers also hit a record high of 329, up 36 percent from the previous year, according to NPA data, which cover cases involving children under age 18.

Two-thirds of the cases investigated in 2006, or 199, were for physical abuse, up 28 percent, while 75 cases were for sexual abuse, up 36 percent. The number of cases of child neglect doubled to 23.

The NPA identified mothers as the largest group of abusers, at 29 percent, followed by a breakdown of male perpetrators into natural fathers, in second place, stepfathers, in third, and the mother's common-law husband in fourth.

Fifty-nine children died of abuse. Of those 59, the number of kids killed outright, and not from neglect, more than doubled to 36 from 16 in the previous year.

By age, the number of children police encountered under 1 year of age increased 24 percent to 42 infants, which is 13 percent of all the children involved.

The NPA began compiling data in 1999. The previous record is 229 cases, involving 239 children, in 2004.

Date-site crimes high

The number of alleged offenses related to online dating hit a record high 1,915 in 2006, up 21 percent from the previous year, the National Police Agency said in a report released Thursday.

The NAP started compiling the data in 2000.

The number of victims rose 9 percent to 1,387, the first increase since the introduction of a law in September 2003 that bans online dating Web sites from soliciting sex with minors.

Of the victims, 1,153, or 83 percent, were under 18.

The NPA said 97 percent of the victims accessed dating sites via mobile phones.

The Japan Times
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Record 316 child abuse victims reported in 2006

The Mainichi Shimbun
February 15, 2007
Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070215p2a00m0na022000c.html

The number of child abuse victims hit 316 in 2006, the worst figure since police began collecting records in 1999, a National Police Agency report has shown.

The figure was 38 percent higher than the number of victims recorded in 2005. The number of child abuse cases in which people were apprehended also climbed to 297, a 33.8 percent increase compared with the previous year and the highest figure on record.

The number of victims who died reached 59, second only to the 61 deaths from child abuse recorded in 2001, the report showed.

Child prostitution and pornography cases in which police apprehended suspects increased to a record 2,229 incidents, an 8.8 percent increase compared with the previous year. The figures highlight the difficult conditions under which many children are being brought up.

Police said that 215 of the 316 children who were victims of child abuse had been exposed to violence or physical abuse, 77 were victims of sexual abuse, and 24 had been neglected in their upbringing, more than twice the number of victims of neglect recorded in 2005.

In one case of neglect in the Kyoto Prefecture city of Nagaokakyo in October last year, the parents of a 3-year-old boy failed to feed their son, causing him to starve to death.

A total of 36 of the children who died were murdered. Among the victims was a 9-year-old girl allegedly murdered by her 34-year-old mother Suzuka Hatakeyama. Another 15 children died from injuries inflicted on them. Six children died because their parents abandoned their responsibility to bring them up properly, and two died in cases of gross neglect.

A total of 1,613 child prostitution cases were reported during the year, resulting in the apprehension of 1,140 people. The number of child pornography cases, meanwhile, hit 616 cases in 2006, a 31.1 percent increase compared with the previous year. In these cases police apprehended 350 people. Both figures were the worst since police started collecting data on the crimes in 2000.

The number of actual victims of child prostitution fell 11.2 percent from the previous year to 1,335, but the number of victims in child pornography cases rose 9.3 percent to 269. (Mainichi)

February 15, 2007

Number of child abuse cases rises 34% in 2006

Japan Today (Kyodo)
Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 14:17 EST
Source: http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/399178

TOKYO — The number of suspected child abuse cases rose 34% in 2006 from the previous year to 297 and that of victims in those cases rose 38% to 316, both record highs, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

The number of people police identified as abusers also hit a record high, of 329, up 36% from the previous year, according to the count that covered cases of the abuse of children under the age of 18. Mothers formed the largest portion of perpetrators, accounting for 29%, followed by the victims' fathers, adopted fathers and men who live with the victims' mother. Of the victims, 59 died of abuse, compared to 16 in the previous year.

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