Into the underbelly
WE call it the not so hidden truth because it is happening everywhere. So frequently and with each case, the severity worsened either by the age of the victim, their relation to the perpetrator or the brutality of the crime.
Lice Movono
25 September, 2017, 12:00 am
Published in The Fiji Times
WE call it the not so hidden truth because it is happening everywhere. So frequently and with each case, the severity worsened either by the age of the victim, their relation to the perpetrator or the brutality of the crime.
The rate at which someone; women, girl or boy is sexually violated in this country has reached epidemic proportions, just based on the number of cases taken to court.
The number of cases with enough evidence for state lawyers to want to prosecute shows there were 168 victims from January-August with 298 incidents of serious sexual offences against them. This represents only rape, attempted rape, indecent assault, defilement and sexual assault.
Between January and August this year, state prosecutors found enough evidence to prosecute crimes against 140 victims with 328 charges of these same five sex crimes.
A decade ago, shock would be over how closely related a victim and perpetrator was.
Today it gets worse, a divisional police commander aptly described recent trend last week when he said it was sickening to note the correlation between how much older each perpetrator was becoming and how much younger their victims were.
Ironically, there is divided opinion on what the alarming figures mean with prosecutors and victim support service providers agreeing that the increasing records show a better justice system, helped by the Crimes Decree 2009 which made rape prosecution easier.
As opposed to simplistic conclusions of the rest of us that maybe there is an increase in the incidence of these sex crimes.
Both sides agree though that way forward must focus on better packaging and delivery of the message that ours is a society unwilling to accept gender-based violence.
Pacific activists who have worked against violence against women (VAW) have about 30 years of messaging, attitudinal change work going on that front and some may argue there seems no end to the problem in sight. Not if 82-year-old grandfathers are being prosecuted for the rape of their six-year-old biological grandson.
This begs the question asked by DPP Christopher Pryde in March of this year, what more can we do?
As is our nature of a newspaper though, several more questions need asking and in the next few weeks we bring you not answers but truths which may help us answer those questions collectively.
While doing that, we must first state facts, some of it obvious, some in plain sight but unseen.
“The reason we began to publish the statistics is to inform the public and interested NGOs who work in this area of the extent of the problem; bearing in mind that the totals published each month are only the tip of the iceberg,” Mr Pryde said.
Why are we a society plagued by ever increasing gender-based violence, child abuse and sexual crimes with incidences as frequent as they are frightening.
– DPP Christopher Pryde
Have we devolved to become a voyeuristic people, fuelled by social media focused on the excitement of information and seeking the enjoyment from observing violence for its extreme value, which we forget the victims are people, enough to not be motivated to help?
A few cases, one just last week involving a 21-year-old reportedly gay man brutally murdered in a heavily populated neighbourhood and in March when a 22-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times by her partner in broad daylight, on the streets of another dense area.
So we know these crimes occur. One of us knows someone else who has suffered at the hands of another because of their gender or place in the gender power structure.
The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre puts it at one in every two women in this country will have or already has faced some sort of violence and most of the time, from within the home.
The police say that for sexual crimes against children, this is certainly the case, our children are not safe even in our homes.
And the police say it is because we don’t pay attention to them, not enough given the kind of predators who live with us.
“The saddest part is knowing that the very trusted relatives who are supposed to keep, protect and look after the younger ones are committing the offence,” the northern divisional police commander, Senior Superintendent of Police Verani Nakauyaca said.
If the justice system is to be believed, our tariffs on rape and sexual crimes are among the highest in the world, so surely the deterrents are in place. The obvious plea when one learns of a sexual crime is the cry for harsher penalties. The chief prosecutor told a gathering of feminists in March that this may not be the answer and may actually make women less safe.
For researchers of sexual productive health though, the trend is not too shocking though because their work with sex workers tell of alarming new trends both in the profile of the customer as well as those offering sex for purchase.
Our own research into the sex industry show a Fiji seemingly disconnected in and among itself because within our own community lies a certain class of people, mostly women and girls for whom the reality of a home is very different and therefore traditional mechanisms of protection don’t apply.
Sexual reproductive health researcher Avelina Rokoduru said the research spoke of a generation of young women and girls whose existing gender based vulnerabilities were made worse by the meagre economical choices they got when they reached the city.
Ms Rokoduru said they came ripe with the characteristics predators look for.
In the sex industry, as we found out for ourselves, the stereotype is outdated. It is no longer just the kerbside business place you expect transactional sex to take place.
As Ms Rokoduru and researchers about her found out, are older women, there are men and there are girls who seem underage but they are united by poverty which is desperate and fuelled by ongoing urbanisation the country is going through.
“A whole lot of these sex workers we talked to, came here from the village to stay with uncles and aunts by well-meaning parents who trust the child will be looked after and gain access to a better life,” Ms Rokoduru said.
“We are looking at just the tip of the iceberg for poverty, in the urbanisation process.”
Compounding what is often an already desperate situation before they arrive, these young women enter a world where selling sex is an option. And contrary to popular opinion, it is not easy nor is it enjoyable, Ms Rokoduru said.
Given our social structure, the influence of faith on a Fijian person and their affinity to the communal circle, sex is for most women taboo, uncomfortable and almost shameful.
Researchers of gender based violence found that where gender based violence is rife, sexual crimes is not far behind.
What sexual health researchers found exacerbates this because where sex work is, alcohol, drug trade and substance abuse is not too far behind because while they provide a ready aid to dull the painful reality of selling sex, they also become another commodity to sell in the underbelly where sex work occurs.
They say a newspaper is a mirror of society and we strive to do that in all that we do at The Fiji Times so in the coming weeks, we ask those difficult questions and delve into the darkest corners of our minds as well as our streets to hear what our community is telling us.
What we will do different though is not just inform you but to also to educate you. So if you are a parent or guardian or simply around a child, you know how to protect them from harm.
We have decided it is no longer enough to just make you aware of it. Not if everyone is at risk and anyone a possible perpetrator.
We no longer are comfortable to be part of a community where children get raped from everyone from their grandfather to their mother. No ? it is about time we told you the painful truths as it has been shown and told to us.
