Underage victims of sex crimes wait 10 times longer than adults to seek help, with one case taking 58 years, Hong Kong study finds

Underage victims of sex crimes take 10 times longer on average than adults to seek help, with one case involving 58 years before the offence was reported, according to a study by a Hong Kong advocacy and support group.

Researchers attributed the “common and very worrying” trend to sexual violence within families and a conservative culture where victims feel too ashamed to speak out.

RainLily, a rape crisis centre for female victims of sexual violence, released the results on Saturday, and among the grim statistics was a case involving a one-year-old girl, the youngest recorded by the group.

The study looked at 3,611 cases in which the centre had provided counselling and support between 2000 and last June. Among this, 64.2 per cent involved rape, 30 per cent indecent assault and 5.8 per cent sexual harassment.

Victims under 16 – the age of sexual consent in Hong Kong – had an average delay of 13.2 years before they sought help from the centre. This was 10 times that of the 1.2-year average for adults.

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Almost 70 per cent of cases involving minors centred on children above the age of 10.

“One of the reasons for delayed reporting is to do with a culture where victims are blamed more than they are given support, making it difficult for them to step forward,” RainLily executive director Linda Wong Sau-yung said.

The average length of delay among all victims was 3.8 years, with 10 per cent of them waiting for more than a decade to speak out.

“Some of them think: ‘Will people even believe it really happened to me?’ Or: ‘People might just think you’re mistaken’,” Wong said.

One in seven victims reported their perpetrators to be a parent, sibling or relative, with nearly 90 per cent of such cases happening at home.

The figure was even higher for those below 16, with 45.1 per cent of 759 victims reporting being sexually violated by a parent, sibling or relative.

In one case, it took a rape victim – who was under 16 at the time – 58 years to come forward.

More than half of all victims were aged between 15 to 29 years at the time of the offences, while the youngest was one and the eldest 85.

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In the case of the one-year-old girl, the sex assaults by a relative had continued until she was in her teens. The girl had no recollection of when these first occurred, but after seeking help, was told by a family member that the abuse started when she was a baby.

The High Court last month convicted a 63-year-old father for raping and sexually assaulting his own daughter between 2006 and 2011, with the first incident happening when she was six.

Such convictions are rare, with only 221 cases, or 6.1 per cent of all cases in the study, in which suspects were found guilty.

Many victims chose not to report to police, and even fewer cases were brought to court because of a lack of evidence or a withdrawal of complaint by the victim, the research showed.

Despite the reluctance of victims to come forward, Wong said the #MeToo movement that had spread worldwide in recent years had encouraged more women to speak up.

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RainLily has handled more than 14,000 requests for help related to sexual violence between 2000 to 2018.

According to Social Welfare Department statistics, there were 7,516 reports of sexual violence in the past decade, 1,020 of which were from last year.

The department defined sexual violence as incidents of rape, indecent assault, forced masturbation or oral sex, unlawful buggery and multiple types of abuse.

One of the recommendations to make it easier and less traumatic for victims seeking help has been to enhance the availability of public services in Hong Kong.

Medical sector lawmaker Dr Pierre Chan Pui-yin brought up the matter to the Legislative Council late last year, urging the government to provide resources to allow public hospitals to set up one-stop integrated crisis centres.

Such facilities would allow victims to give statements, go through forensic medical examination and receive counselling in one place, instead of having to repeatedly recount their experiences over several days to different agents, such as doctors, police and social workers.

“We hope this will help victims break their silence, seek help and fight for justice,” Chan said.