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GEORGE TOWN – There is an alarming trend of juvenile crimes in Penang, which have recorded 1,251 arrests including rape offences from July 2021 to November this year.
Penang police chief Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said those arrested were between 10 and 19 years old and comprised 86% or 1,078 males while the rest were females.
Based on the contingent’s index crime statistics, rape crimes reported from July 2021 to last November were 96 cases with 77 arrests involving juveniles, which is a worrying concern.
“In fact, what worries police is that most of the rape cases are committed by suspects known to the victims, which indirectly gives the impression of consensual sex.
“This factor of free sex is too prevalent among those who were underage at the time,” he said here today.
He was Penang police’s representative a town hall session panel at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) cultural hall discussing a topic entitled Youth and Crime: Issues and Challenges.
Also on the panel were motivational expert Mohamed Hanafiah Malek, USM Policy Research Centre and International Studies lecturer Associate Prof Abdul Rashid Mohamad and Datuk P. Sudramoothy as the moderator.
Commenting further, Shuhaily said the demographics of those involved in the rape crime largely involved teenagers from the B40 group.
“What we are worried about is the victims’ fate, the stigma to the community and the solution to this issue. Our concern is if the teenagers involved dismiss it as normal and over time, they are proud of the number of boys they know (a social conquest),” he said.
Meanwhile, he said factors such as a negative environment, broken family institutions, socio-economic issues, level of education and a lack of religious conscience indirectly caused teenagers to be caught up in uncontrollable juvenile offences.
According to him, the age of teenagers involved indicates they are in the growing-up phase and the transition to adulthood creates an attitude of experimentation, in addition to undergoing physiological, physical, social and emotional changes.
“That’s why they need to be guided so that they don’t go astray and fail to manage their lives well, this should not be taken for granted because teenagers are a pillar to the country’s future leadership,” he said. – Bernama, December 20, 2022