Police have received 861 sexual related offences cases so far this year compared with 990 for the same period last year.
The Northern Division has recorded 125 cases and the Chief Planning Research and Doctrines, Assistant Commissioner of Police Aporosa Lutunauga said out of the 125 reported, 35 are indecent assault, 27 for rape and 25 sexual assault cases, while the remaining are other cases such as abduction.
The Western Division has recorded the highest with 290, followed by the South with 286.
“The top three cases of sexual related offences are so far this year includes rape with 265 compared with 284 for the same period last year. The second is indecent assault with a total of 186 compared with 221 last year and sexual assault totals 85 compared with 119 last year,” ACP Lutunauga said.
“There is a decline, but it does not mean that the offences are not being committed as these are reports received by police.
“The stats actually reflects changes in the prevalence of various sexual offences in Fiji over a two year period while some offences show a decrease, some are stable while others have seen a slight increase including indecent assault or annoying any person.”
ACP Lutunauga said people were more confident to report such cases to the police.
“We are trusting our community policing programs through Duavata especially when some are old offences and people report anyway because they trust the system,” he said.
“We have crime prevention committees that are working with communities.”
