This article is based on media documented incidents of child abuse and child neglect reported across various media platforms during the month of May of this year. 

Types of child abuse incidents

In May, 2024, the media reported 80 separate incidents of child abuse, affecting a total of 118 victims. It is important to note that these figures represent only the cases reported by the media, reflecting a small segment of the actual situation in Sri Lanka. Many incidents go unnoticed or are under-reported, failing to reach mainstream coverage. A majority of these cases comprised of occurrences such as abductions, drug abuse, emotional abuse, negligence, physical abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, homicides, missing children and trafficking cases.

Gender distribution

Among the 118 identified victims, 52/44% of the female victims were affected as a result of varying types of abuses. Male victims accounted for 36/31% of the total affected. These statistics highlight the ongoing issue of child abuse and the need for increased awareness and reporting to address the full scope of the problem. However, the genders of 30/25% of the victims recorded were not revealed in these articles by the mainstream media.

Age diversity among the victims

A majority of the abuse reported involved child victims who came under the age groups of 1-5 years and 15-18 years, which came up to 27.1% of victims, for both the age categories. However, it should be noted that 32 children in the 1-5 age group were victimised, thus recording a figure of 27.1% of the total. Simultaneously, children from the 15-18 age group recorded 32 victims (also 27.1% of the total number). However, two incidents recorded a group of children being affected, but whose numbers were not disclosed. There were 13 children from the 6-10 years age group who fell victim to abuse, making up 11% of the total children affected. From the 11-14-years age group, 29/24.6% of the total victims were affected. However, 7/6% of the total number of victims fell under the ‘age unspecified’ category.

Perpetrator trends

In terms of the types of perpetrators who were involved in these cases, the most common type of abusers were individuals who were responsible for a majority of the reported child abuse cases and this pattern tends to be the norm in these situations. Out of the 80 incidents, 50/70% of these were perpetrated by individuals, resulting in the victimisation of 68 children. The next set of perpetrators in line fell under the 'group' category. In this case, 18/23.8% of the incidents involved the abuse of 45 victims, which constituted 36.5% of the total number. In terms of self-inflicted abuse or instances where the victims themselves were responsible for the situation, there were five incidents which produced four victims. Such occasions would have involved situations such as suicide. Under the 'unknown' category, one child emerged as a victim though there were four incidents that had taken place, making up 1.3% of all the incidents that were recorded during this period.

A common trait that we have witnessed in terms of the majority of the perpetrators of child abuse happens to be a family member. For May, where mainstream news was concerned, this figure seemed to be evident in this instance as well, with 19 such cases having been associated with a child or children being abused by a family member. These 19 incidents, in turn, victimised 23 children or close to 19.49% of the total incidents reported. However, the largest number of child victims that were affected (42) were a result of the actions of perpetrators who happened to be persons with formal authority, though that category of perpetrators represented 9 such incidents or 11.2% of the total percentage of reported incidents during the month. 

Other perpetrator categories involved the clergy, non-family household members, intimate partners, peers or schoolmates, self-inflicted incidents and cases that were categorised as unknown due to the lack of information. With no definite classification of perpetrator specifics, and which instead were denoted as 'other' perpetrators based on the data gathered, there were seven such incidents that affected five victims.

Settings where the violence occurred

Community settings saw 29 incidents victimising 30 children as reported by the media. Incidents occurring in the victims' homes totalled 17, affecting 20 victims. A significant number of victims were from educational or vocational training facilities, with 31 victims resulting from 10 incidents. Other settings where abuse took place included medical, rehabilitation, and care-related facilities, places of work, and digital spaces and platforms. Additional settings typically monitored, but not prominently featured in news reports, included the perpetrator's home, places of work, and places of detention. Despite this, 12 victims were affected by 11 separate incidents where the specific settings were not reported or data regarding the same were scarce, leading to their categorisation under 'unknown'.

District-wise incidents & victims

According to the data accumulated, news about these cases as disclosed by the media showed that a majority of the victims came from the District of Anuradhapura. The highest number of reported incidents occurred in Gampaha, accounting for nine incidents that affected eight victims. Nevertheless, the highest number of victims came out of Anuradhapura, which reported 29 affected children. It is worth noting that those 29 were a result of just five incidents. The Jaffna District also made it to the top of the May list in terms of the highest number of victims, where six incidents were reportedly responsible for the victimisation of 15 children. The Colombo District followed closely with nine victims in total. This number was a result of eight abuse related incidents that had taken place. The Kalutara District disclosed news of seven victims as a result of eight incidents that had taken place.

(Protecting Environment and Children Everywhere (PEaCE)/End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT) Sri Lanka is a non-governmental organisation focused on child protection by way of ending the sexual abuse and exploitation of children)

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication