Study Report - Women Victims of Crimes in Kerala - Kerala Police

participation of women in organized political system. (Heise, Pitanguy and Germain,
1994).
Partner violence is the most common form of violence. At the population level, it
greatly exceeds the prevalence of all other forms of physical and sexual abuse in
women’s lives (Heise, 2011).
Child Abuse
Child sexual abuse is a problem occurring at alarming rates in our society. Although the
number of substantiated cases of child sexual abuse is startling, these astronomical
statistics do not represent the total number of child sexual victimizations. Most children
do not disclose their abuse, with reasons varying from embarrassment, a sense of
normalization surrounding the abuse, and fear of consequences if they disclose the abuse
(Palmer, Brown, Rae-Grant, & Laughlin, 1999)
Richter and Higson Smith allude to several kinds of sexual abuse against children
in the pre-pubertal age group. Children may be abused out of an adult’s relationship
needs, they may be repeatedly sexually abused by their caregivers, fatally raped by
anonymous individuals, enticed by gifts and threatened by their perpetrators, sexually
exploited for financial gains, abused by other children, or be involved in non-contact
sexual abuse. According to these authors, CSA varies in terms of its duration, the age of
the child, the way the child experiences the abuse, the conditions under which the abuse
occurs, the characteristics of the abuse, and the effects of the abuse on both the child and
the family (Richter & Higson-Smith, 2004).
Child sexual abuse in India, though widespread, is difficult to document because it
is shrouded in secrecy. Fear of social stigma, an unwillingness to implicate family
members, and other factors discourage families from exposing abuse. Police
misbehaviour and a long judicial process are deterrents to seeking redress. (Breaking the
Silence - Child Sexual Abuse in India, 2013)
The government estimates that 40 percent of India's children are vulnerable to
threats such as trafficking, homelessness, forced labor, drug abuse, and crime, and are in
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