Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Ibrahim Abu Auf (member of the MB parliamentary bloc) held the government responsible for the exacerbating phenomenon of child abuse because of its negligence of the issue.

In a statement to Ikhwanweb, he said child abuse is the product of poor economic conditions as well as increasing immorality in Egyptian life fostered by the government.

Abu Auf indicated that the spread of child abuse is clear evidence of the government"s failure at all levels-economic, social and political.

National Center for Social and Criminal Researches has recently issued a study showing that the prevailing exploitation crimes against children over the last ten years were driven by homelessness, which accounts for 56% out of the total exploitation crimes against children mounting to 223,795 cases.

The study (which was prepared by Fadya Abu Shuhba (professor of criminal law and head of criminal treatment researches department) added that exploiting children in committing all kinds of robbery crimes ranked the second by 21%, sexual abuse of children ranked third by 18%, exploiting them in harmful activities by 2%, and kidnapping children by 0.4%.

The study reported that such crimes mostly prevailed in Cairo, 57949 crimes (8.25%), Alexandria 5.16%, Giza 4.7%, Suez 7%, Port Said 5.6%, and Gharbiah 6%. The remaining rate includes the rest of governorates. The least is Southern Sinai (202 cases).

The study reveals that child abuse crimes are associated with abandonment of compulsory education. Statistics report that the number of children who abandoned school in the last ten years mounted 4940.

The study showed that the age group of 15 to 18 years is the most vulnerable to exploitation by 74% out of the total 63862 children followed by group 12 to -15 years by 6.19%, and age group of 7 to -12 years by 4.6%.

Children age groups between 7 to -12 years are used in homelessness by 5.63%, 32% in robbery, 6.2% in sexual abuse, and illegal child labor by 0.7%.

Criminal activities of drug dealing, robbery, and homelessness mostly prevail in age group of 15 to -18 years by 73% followed by different forms of sexual abuse by 23% out of total 47257 children.

Males are more exploited than females, 94% against 5% out of total 63862 children.