Commissioner of Police Tang King-shing (center) and his deputies Yam Tat-wing (right) and Tsang Wai-hung update the media yesterday on the crime situation of Hong Kong in 2009 and major work priorities of the Police Force this year. GIS

Reported cases increase almost 30% over 2008, to a total of 136

HONG KONG: As police and schools focus attention on eradicating drug abuse in schools, a potentially more serious problem appears to have emerged, with a startling 30 percent increase in the number of cases of rape involving young people over the past year, crime data released yesterday has indicated.

Hong Kong police in their annual report on crime say the crime rate overall showed a marginal decline of 1.1 percent. However, police reported 136 cases of rape, an increase of 31 cases over 2008. In view of that, police recommend that school kids be taught how to report sexual assaults and how to protect themselves.

Commissioner of Police Tang King-shing noted that many of the cases cited in the report did not come to light until victims talked to close friends, relatives and social workers.

In all but a few of the cases (130), the victims knew their assailants and in 104 of the cases the attackers were friend of the victims. Thirty-one of the victims were under sixteen. That's six more than in the previous year.

Legislator Cheung Man-kwong observed that many victims are reluctant to report crimes since there is insufficient protection provided to them and to witnesses.

Tang replied that special measures have been adopted to protect young victims. He also promised to take up the matter with the Department of Justice, to examine whether penalties should be increased.

According to the Crimes Ordinance, a man who has sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for five years. A man who has sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 faces the possibility of life imprisonment.

Joyce Ma Lai-chong, chairperson of the Department of Social Work of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said she believed there is still a gender bias concerning sexual assaults in Hong Kong which deters many victims from reporting attacks to police.

"Victims are worried about how the community will think about them if they report the case," Ma said. "They are psychologically not motivated to call the police. After all, virginity is very much valued in Chinese tradition. Victims (by complaining) may defame their own identity. They are reluctant to tell others as they think it is a shame."

Ma said victims of rape not only suffer from physical agony, but also are hurt psychologically. She strongly urged that victims report to police.

"It is something unjust and reporting the crime can help ease victims' psychological burdens," she said.

She said education in the schools is very much necessary to teach girls how to prevent their being raped and to report crimes.

"They should not get acquainted with strangers on the Internet and go to quiet places alone," Ma said.

"I would tell a social worker if I were raped. I wouldn't tell my parents as they are too close to me. I wouldn't like myself. I'd think of myself as unclean," said Yoyo Hui, a 17-year-old girl studying in a secondary school in Mong Kok. "There is not enough education (on the matter) at schools as they are all talking about drugs now," she added.

Hui said that she has experienced some sexual harassment in her daily life, especially when she is traveling in the MTR.

"Sometimes men who look as if they are mentally unbalanced try to get close to me or even touch me and I don't know what to do," she said.

(HK Edition 01/28/2010 page1)