Fight against sexual abuse: focus on cases in the focus

Fight against sexual abuse: focus on cases in the focus

more transparency in the fight against child abuse

Frankfurt/Berlin (dpa) - The clarification of sexual abuse of children and adolescents showed a slightly positive development last year. Contrary to the increasing number of cases that have become known, the federal parliamentary subject illustrates sexual offenses to the disadvantage of children and adolescents in 2023 that the police are still going from a large dark field.

In 2022, the authorities were reported a total of 16,375 cases in which children were victims of sexual abuse. This marks an increase of 5.5 percent compared to the previous year. In addition, 1,200 cases of sexual abuse of young people were registered. The growth of 7.4 percent is particularly alarming to around 45,000 cases in which representations of sexual child abuse were in focus, especially through numerous information from abroad.

improved methods of investigation and claims for legal reforms

The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) emphasizes the close connection between the discovery of abuse cases and police control measures as well as the display behavior in its position image. Dark field has been noticeably lightened by increased police measures in recent years, according to the report.

Furthermore, the BKA points out that cases in which references indicate foreign crime scenes and no further investigations are possible in Germany do not flow into the official statistics. The limited storage of telecommunications data, in particular IP addresses, is mentioned as the main reason for unresolved cases and missing information.

political measures to strengthen the investigative work

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) and the BKA have been committed to a legal new regulation for storing traffic and location data in telecommunications for some time. The lack of data storage of some providers was identified as an obstacle to effective investigative work.

In April, an agreement between Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was finally reached. The Quick-Freeze procedure stipulates that data is only saved when suspected of a serious crime. The exact implementation and coordination within the federal government to this procedure is still in the initial phase.

The urgently needed transparency and joint effort in the fight against child abuse reflects the progressive social sensitization for this topic. Only through a consistent and coordinated approach can further progress be made and the safety of children can be strengthened.

- Nag