State finds increase in sexual, physical abuse of children

A state program has found there were more child abuse cases in Hawaii in 2021 than in 2020, attributed in part to COVID-19 but also to increased awareness and reporting.

The state Judiciary’s Children’s Justice Centers of Hawaii on Sunday released its second annual report on child abuse cases it receives. The CJC tracked about 2,060 cases of abuse in 2021, up from the 1,669 it tracked in 2020.

In the data released in the report, CJC said it found that there had been a jump in sex abuse allegations and physical abuse allegations.

There are multiple reasons cited for the increase in reported child abuse, but it was attributed in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced kids away from schools, teachers and counselors, who are among the primary reporters of child abuse.

“When children were not in school and were home­schooling or doing it remotely, there’s no opportunity … to report (abuse),” said Jasmine Mau-Mukai, CJC statewide director, in a news conference at the organization’s office along Pali Highway. But as kids returned to school, so did their opportunities to tell teachers and counselors about any abuse they’re experiencing at home, she said.

Representatives of other entities involved in reporting or investigating child abuse, such as the Honolulu Police Department, the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, the state Child Welfare Serv­ices, Sex Abuse Treatment Center and the Friends of the CJC of Oahu, also attended the news conference.

Despite the increase in reported cases, better awareness and public education about child abuse is reducing the hesitation from victims to admit abuse, said Lt. Vince Legaspi, from HPD’s Sex Crimes Unit.

“It’s not as shameful as years past,” Legaspi said at the news conference. “The awareness is out there. People are beginning to speak out.”

CJC sites, located across the state, are “homelike” setups where children who are victims of abuse can be interviewed in a comfortable setting while their cases are investigated.

Of the cases the CJC has tracked, which primarily come from child abuse cases reported to local authorities like police departments, the centers interviewed 1,048 children in 2021, which is up from the 776 children interviewed the year before.

The plurality of child abuse reports followed by the CJC in both years were sex abuse allegations. The centers reported 913 of those allegations in 2021, up from 760 in 2020. It reported 214 physical abuse allegations in 2021, an increase from the 202 reported in 2020. It also reported 441 instances in which a child was a witness to a violent crime in 2021, but did not report that number for 2020. There were 883 “other” reports in 2021 that involved sex trafficking, neglect, internet crimes against children, drug endangerment and threat of abuse, compared with 241 in 2020.

Oahu had the highest share of children who reportedly suffered from child abuse, with 913 children the centers tracked in 2021 — 266 more than in 2020.

On Hawaii island the CJC tracked 718 children in 2021; for Maui County it tracked 261 children; and on Kauai, 168.

The centers found that in 2021, 416 of the children interviewed were 7 to 12 years old. Older children ages 13-18 made up 369 of the interviewed children, while 226 were 6 or younger.

The CJC focuses primarily on serious physical and sex abuse cases, but it doesn’t include all the cases of abuse in the state.

The state Department of Human Services’ latest Child Abuse and Neglect Report confirmed that nearly 1,200 children were abused or neglected in 2020. The report said that there were 3,700 additional children who reportedly experienced maltreatment that year, but not enough evidence could be found to confirm their cases.

Even then, as the CJC noted, most child abuse goes unreported.

Mau-Mukai said there are communities, such as around the Hilo area, that are becoming more proactive in reporting child abuse. Additionally, she said that Senate Bill 2114, which passed through this year’s legislative session and has been sent to Gov. David Ige to be signed into law, would expand the types of cases that the CJC can take on.