Women's rights advocates highlight sexual assault

An advocacy group yesterday called attention to the number of sexual assaults being committed in the country.

An average of 18.1 sexual assaults per day were reported last year, but the Modern Women's Foundation -- a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting women's rights -- said the actual number of attacks was much higher.

"The Ministry of the Interior's Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Committee received a total of 6,601 reports of sexual assault last year," foundation director Chang Chin-li (張錦麗) told a press conference yesterday.

"Since international experts on sexual abuse agree that the actual number of assaults is seven to 10 times higher than the number reported, as many as 40,000 to 60,000 sexual abuses could have taken place last year," Chang said.

She added that the number of perpetrators brought to justice was low.

Chang said that although the committee had received 6,601 reports of sexual assault, less than half -- or 3,251 cases -- had been reported to the police.

Of these cases, only 1,896 led to indictments with a mere 1,727 individuals being punished. Additionally, only 672 perpetrators of sexual assault were jailed, Chang said.

Chang said a lack of evidence and witnesses contributed to the low rate of conviction.

National Chi Nan University Professor Wang Pei-ling (王珮玲) said an analysis of 10 years' worth of statistics showed that 60 percent of sexual assault victims were underage.

She added that many of the perpetrators were serial offenders.

Wang Lih-rong (王麗容), a professor of social work at National Taiwan University, criticized the Ministry of Justice's "lackluster" implementation last November of a measure requiring some sexual assault parolees to wear radio frequency identification (RFID) tags which allow police to track their movements.

Wang said that although 1,037 sexual offenders were paroled last year, only 10 individuals were required to wear RFID tags between Nov. 22 and Dec. 31.

She cited the case of a Hualien man, Wei Yung-ching (魏永慶), who is suspected of raping a six-year-old girl on Jan. 9 -- shortly after he was paroled.

Wang questioned why the ministry did not require Wei to wear an RFID tag.

The justice ministry said it had reviewed Wei's case and planned to increase the number of parolees required to wear RFID tags.