By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THERE were 240 new reported cases of child abuse, neglect and abandonment documented between January and October of last year, according to data released by the Ministry of Social Services.

The statistics led to an advocacy group expressing alarm and calling for greater protection for children.

Details on data recorded for November and December were not available up to press time yesterday.

But of the 240 cases reported, 75 were cases of sexual abuse, 115 were child neglect and three were child abandonment.

The first ten months of 2022 also saw 45 new cases of physical abuse and one new case each of verbal and emotional abuse.

During the same period the year before, there were a total of 258 new cases of the aforementioned crimes referred to the ministry.

Of these cases, 82 were reports of child sex abuse, 54 of physical abuse, 13 of verbal abuse, one of emotional abuse, 102 of child neglect and six were child abandonment.

 While the latest data did not show an increase in reported cases of child sex abuse and child abandonment when compared to 2021, it did show a slight rise in reported cases of child neglect for that time period.

 Commenting on the statistics yesterday, Terneille Burrows, of advocacy group Rise Bahamas, called it alarming, saying more needs to be done to better protect our children.

 “It is alarming that we continue to see high numbers of reported child abuse statistics, although there does not seem to be extensive public outrage until a child is murdered. Child physical abuse sometimes leads to their death,” she said in a statement sent to The Tribune.

 “In the instance of the late ‘Baby Bella’, it was reported by the media that some of the child’s neighbours suspected that she was in an abusive household, but never reported it. In 2022, Rise Bahamas proposed the introduction of ‘Bella’s Bill’ - which would expand the mandatory reporting categories where child abuse is suspected - to include immediate family, guardians and care givers.

 “We urge the public to be vigilant and report suspected cases of child abuse to the Department of Social Services.”

 Denise Major, a board member of the advocacy group, agreed that more people need to be held accountable, saying “the number of reports is not reflected in the amount of cases that we are seeing tried.”

 Social Services Minister Obie Wilchcombe could not be reached for comment on the matter yesterday.

 But in April, Mr Wilchcombe had told reporters that child abandonment had become more “prevalent” in recent years.

 Mr Wilchcombe said, at the time, he believed the abandonment trend was related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy.

 “We talk about COVID and we talked about Dorian, but the truth is it’s been happening since Hurricane Francis, Jeanne, Wilma from 2004. That economy has not regained its strength. We have to fix the economy,” the minister added.

“We have to create opportunities for many who don’t have and find themselves in a dilemma and the only way to deal with a situation sometimes they believe is to run away from it, but we have to tell people that’s not the way to deal with matters.”

 Mr Wilchcombe also conceded that cases of abuse, particularly sexual abuse, were “unacceptable”.