CHILD ABUSE (Particulars)

Mr Chng Hee Kok asked the Minister for Community Development what were the numbers of (i) reported cases of abuse of children and (ii) prosecutions for the years 1985, 1986 and 1987.

The Minister for Community Development (Mr Wong Kan Seng): The number of reported cases of child abuse for the years 1985, 1986, and 1987 are 224, 279 and 209 respectively. The number of cases referred to the police for further investigations are 14, 13 and 11 for the 3 years I mentioned, and the number of cases of prosecutions for the years 1985, 1986 and 1987 are just 3, 2 and 1. These are in the tables (Cols. 1223 - 1224) that I have asked the Clerk to circulate and which are on Members' seats. From the tables, it can be seen that the number of reported cases and prosecutions are on the decrease. tables - OUTCOME OF INVESTIGATION CONDUCTED BY MCD ON REPORTED CASES OF CHILD ABUSE, OUTCOME OF POLICE INVESTIGATION ON CASES REFERRED BY MCD (Cols. 1223 - 1224)

The small number of prosecutions is because in the majority of cases the abuse is not serious enough to warrant a prosecution and on an average about 84% of the complaint of abuses are first-time abuses. Such families actually require assistance to cope with child management and other family-related problems and they have been placed on my Ministry's supervision programme. In other cases, there was no evidence or no conclusive evidence or the statements given by the abused child were inconsistent.

In referring a case for prosecution, we have to be mindful of the harmful effect this will have on the child and the family. Many cases were not referred to the police because there was no evidence of abuse and the families actually need assistance. In managing a case, the main and the long-term objective really is to reconcile the child with the parents and this is made more difficult when court proceedings are involved.

Mr Chng Hee Kok: Sir, will the Minister agree that the low number of cases of prosecution could be due to the inappropriate legislation?

Mr Wong Kan Seng: The legislation we have in dealing with such cases is our Children and Young Persons Act. As I have mentioned last year and the year before last in this House, the Act is adequate for such purpose. If there is a serious case of child abuse, we always have the Criminal (Procedure) Code and the Penal Code to deal with such cases. The Act, as I said, is adequate.