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Thursday, July 24, 2025

De Coteau: Surge in sex crimes against females

Vic­tims try­ing to reach out

by

20140806

Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Clifton De Coteau says there has been a steady in­crease in the num­ber of sex­u­al of­fences against fe­males in the past five years. De­spite this, vic­tims and fe­males on the whole seem to be reach­ing out to the many ser­vices set up to help them.He made the com­ment while de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at the Na­tion­al Con­sul­ta­tion on the Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Act, 1999, at the San Fer­nan­do City Hall yes­ter­day.

"In sta­tis­tics from the Crime and Prob­lem Analy­sis Branch (CA­PA), the TTPS re­port­ed steady in­creas­es in the num­ber of charges for sex­u­al of­fences, with fe­males as vic­tims, from the pe­ri­od 2009-2013," De Coteau said."These acts of ag­gres­sion ranged from griev­ous sex­u­al as­sault to rape, in­cest and se­ri­ous in­de­cen­cy, with well over 200 re­port­ed cas­es in 2012 alone."

De Coteau said sta­tis­tics for the same pe­ri­od al­so showed 93 re­port­ed cas­es in the south­west­ern re­gion and 161 cas­es in the south­ern re­gion, with the vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence mur­ders be­ing beat­en to death at the hands of their com­mon-law hus­bands, spous­es or ex-boyfriends.He blamed a lack of ed­u­ca­tion and de­pen­den­cy for the high rates, say­ing, "These cas­es are preva­lent in low-in­come ar­eas, where the women are de­pen­dent on the men to sup­port them."

De Coteau said the on­ly way to re­duce the fig­ures was to ed­u­cate and em­pow­er women."When women can ed­u­cate them­selves and no longer be re­liant on men to pro­vide for them, then they can be free to break the cy­cle of abuse and leave abu­sive re­la­tion­ships."He al­so said abuse vic­tims were reach­ing out, as 16 per cent of the 881 calls to the Na­tion­al Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Hot­line from 2012-2013 were en­quiries about the ser­vices pro­vid­ed by var­i­ous min­istries and NGOs.

"Our so­ci­ety is reach­ing out to us and we must heed their call for in­ter­ven­tion and preser­va­tion. We must be the cure for this fam­i­ly can­cer," he said.He told those gath­ered that the con­sul­ta­tion was vi­tal to the na­tion's de­vel­op­ment."It is im­per­a­tive that the leg­is­la­tion re­mains both rel­e­vant and cur­rent to our times and our peo­ple. The na­tion­al con­sul­ta­tions on the Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Act are in ful­fil­ment of the first and sec­ond pil­lars of sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment: peo­ple-cen­tred de­vel­op­ment, pover­ty erad­i­ca­tion and so­cial jus­tice."

Lawyers should be in­volved

Speak­ing to the me­dia af­ter the con­sul­ta­tion, a mem­ber of the Is­lam­ic Ladies So­cial and Cul­tur­al As­so­ci­a­tion, Shereen Mo­hammed, said there was no point in chang­ing the laws if ex­ist­ing laws could not be im­ple­ment­ed.Mo­hammed, a lawyer, added that lawyers work­ing in the mag­is­trates courts need­ed to at­tend the con­sul­ta­tions, as they were the ones on the ground and knew what peo­ple were go­ing through.

She stressed too that the po­lice need­ed prop­er train­ing, as many of their du­ties out­lined in the Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Act were not be­ing car­ried out. "I don't know if they (po­lice) just don't know, but they don't do what they are sup­posed to in or­der to pro­tect the vic­tims," said Mo­hammed."There are al­so a lot of va­can­cies in the so­cial ser­vices that are not be­ing filled, lead­ing to a se­ri­ous un­der-staffing prob­lem."

Mo­hammed said she hoped De Coteau would be able to prac­ti­cal­ly im­prove the sit­u­a­tion that many women and chil­dren in T&T face."He was very much on point with re­gard to what is hap­pen­ing right now in so­ci­ety. I hope he will be able to im­prove the sit­u­a­tion."


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