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Giving victims of crime a greater role in the criminal justice system is a relatively recent development, a trend likely to continue and increase in the foreseeable future. In many jurisdictions it has led to compensation schemes funded by the state, support for victims of crime to help them recover from their ordeal, and involvement of victims in decisions as to how offenders should be dealt with.

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Most complaints of child sexual abuse in Malaysia do not lead to successful prosecutions, largely due to weaknesses in the nation's criminal justice system, police, lawmakers and child welfare groups say.

According to classified data Malaysian police compiled and shared with Reuters, 12,987 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to police between January 2012 and July of this year. Charges were filed in 2,189 cases, resulting in just 140 convictions.

The data doesn't show how many people were involved, or what happened in the cases where there were no convictions after charges were filed. No details were disclosed in the cases where there were convictions.

Child rights advocates have long pushed the government to publicly disclose data on child sexual abuse to increase awareness so action can be taken to address what they call a growing problem.

A veil was lifted in June when a British court handed Richard Huckle 22 life sentences for abusing up to 200 babies and children, mostly in Malaysia, and sharing images of his crimes on the dark web.

The reason the Malaysian government doesn't publish child sexual abuse data is because it is protected under Malaysia's Official Secrets Act. The government provides data on child abuse only at the request of a member of parliament.

"We don't want people to misinterpret it," said Ong Chin Lan, the head of the Sexual, Women and Children Investigation Division of the Malaysian national police. The government doesn't want to unduly alarm the public about possibly high numbers of child abuse cases, she explained.

It is unclear how Malaysia's number of reported cases compares with its neighbors, some of whom are also reluctant to disclose a high incidence of child sexual abuse.

Thailand's government declined to provide data to Reuters. A senior health ministry official, who did not want to be identified, said it could "make Thailand look bad".

Cambodia, long known as a destination for traveling pedophiles, also does not disclose official data.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE WEAKNESS

Weak policing and child protection laws make it difficult to punish child abusers in Malaysia, leading to inadequate investigations and low convictions on the reported cases, according to officials and child welfare groups Reuters interviewed.

They also say a significant number of child sexual abuse cases are never reported because of taboos around child sex abuse and mistrust of authorities.

In 17 years of operation, PS the Children, Malaysia's biggest NGO dealing with child abuse, has seen zero convictions on the cases it has handled, its founder Madeleine Yong told Reuters.

"There needs to be improvement in the criminal justice system if we want to encourage more people to report, otherwise we will re-victimize the child," she said.

Ong at the sexual crimes unit said police take every case of child sexual abuse seriously and "all cases are investigated in detail".

Police blame weak laws and rules governing court evidence that give little weight to children's testimony as the reason most cases never result in charges.

Malaysia does not have a law specifically prohibiting child pornography and defines rape narrowly as penile penetration. "Grooming" - touching and befriending children as a prelude to sexual abuse - draws no legal penalties.

By contrast, Indonesia's parliament has passed legislation authorizing chemical castration, minimum sentences and even execution for convicted pedophiles. Thailand introduced stricter laws against child pornography last year.

A Child Sexual Crimes bill, expected to be introduced to parliament by the end of the year, would widen the definition of sexual crimes to include online abuse, and make such crimes easier to prosecute. It would also set up a special court to deal with child sex abuse cases more quickly.

THE DARK WEB

Foreign pedophiles could be targeting Malaysia as other countries around the region strengthen child protection laws and step up enforcement, some experts said.

Snow White Smelser, program officer at the child sex offences team in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) East Asia headquarters in Bangkok, said pedophiles compare notes and share information online about countries, where they can operate most freely.

Elena Martellozzo, a London-based criminologist who specializes in child sex abuse on the internet, said Huckle could have chosen Malaysia "because it was not on the radar, or perhaps it's where he found it easier to get work permits, visas and some work opportunities".

Typically, children are sexually abused by someone they know - a neighbor, a relative, a caregiver, or someone like Huckle, who according to court testimony groomed children in an impoverished ethnic Indian neighborhood in Kuala Lumpur.

But increasingly, pedophile activity is moving into the online world, police say.

Australian detectives who investigate pedophiles in the region believe Malaysia has become one of Southeast Asia's biggest centers for the transmission of child pornography on the Internet.

Team Argos, the Australian detective unit that found Huckle in the dark web in late 2014, made a startling discovery from the team's scouring of online pedophile networks: the unusual number of internet addresses in the Kuala Lumpur area transmitting child sexual abuse material from the dark web.

The dark web is a vast virtual space within the Internet, which requires special encryption tools to access.

The Brisbane, Australia-based detectives found 1,000 transmissions of child pornographic materials from the Malaysian capital over a 24-hour period last year, according to Argos data provided by the UNODC.

It was the second-largest transmission location in Southeast Asia after Bangkok's 1,800 - Bangkok's population of 8.2 million is more than four times that of Kuala Lumpur's.

The Malaysian capital is a "high concern" location for the distribution of child sexual abuse materials, said Smelser at the UNODC.

Ong at the child sex crime unit said Malaysian police can't properly monitor the encrypted pedophile networks. "We do not have expertise in handling the dark web. We get alerted from our counterparts overseas," she said.

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judicial process / court cases / court decisions

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How Malaysia allows child abuse to go unpunished

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Most complaints of child sexual abuse in Malaysia do not lead to successful prosecutions, largely due to weaknesses in the nation's criminal justice system, police, lawmakers and child welfare groups say. According to classified data Malaysian police compiled and shared with Reuters, 12,987 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to police between January 2012 and July of this year.

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What is report

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What is Report ? Understand Meaning of Report ↓

Report is a self-explanatory statement of facts relating to a specific subject and serves the purpose of providing information for decision making and follow up actions. It is a systematic presentations of ascertained facts about a specific event / subject. Report is a summary of findings and recommendations about a particular matter / problem. Report is for the guidance of higher authorities including company executives and directors. Report facilitates timely decisions and follow up measures.

Image Credits © Robert J. Funches

According to Oxford Dictionary, report means " a record of ascertained facts."

What are Features or Characteristics of Report ?

1. Complete and Compact Document : Report is a complete and compact written document giving updated information about a specific problem.

2. Systematic Presentation of Facts : Report is a systematic presentation of facts, figures, conclusions and recommendations. Report writers closely study the problem under investigation and prepare a report after analyzing all relevant information regarding the problem. Report is supported by facts and evidence. There is no scope for imagination in a report which is basically a factual document.

3. Prepared in Writing : Reports are usually in writing. Writing reports are useful for reference purpose. It serves as complete, compact and self-explanatory document over a long period. Oral reporting is possible in the case of secret and confidential matters.

4. Provides Information and Guidance : Report is a valuable document which gives information and guidance to the management while framing future policies. It facilitates planning and decision making. Reports are also useful for solving problems faced by a business enterprise.

5. Self-explanatory Document : Report is a comprehensive document and covers all aspects of the subject matter of study. It is a self-explanatory and complete document by itself.

6. Acts as a Tool of Internal Communication : Report is an effective tool of communication between top executives and subordinate staff working in an organization. It provides feedback to employees and to executives for decision making. Reports are generally submitted to higher authorities. It is an example of upward communication. Similarly, reports are also sent by company executives to the lower levels of management. This is treated as downward communication. In addition, reports are also sent to shareholders and others connected with the company. It may be pointed out that report writing / preparation acts as a backbone of any system of communication.

7. Acts as Permanent Record : A report serves as a permanent record relating to certain business matter. It is useful for future reference and guidance.

8. Time Consuming and Costly Activity : Report writing is a time consuming, lengthy and costly activity as it involves collection of facts, drawing conclusion and making recommendations.

Related

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What is Report ? Meaning , Features or Characteristics

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Report is a self-explanatory statement of facts relating to a specific subject and serves the purpose of providing information for decision making and follow up actions. It is a systematic presentations of ascertained facts about a specific event / subject. Report is a summary of findings and recommendations about a particular matter / problem.

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A lot of reports are written daily. Some of them are intended to document the progress of some activities, feasibility reports, investigation reports, some of the reports are for monitoring purposes, some are evaluation reports but it is clear that all the reports have some objective and purpose behind it. That objective and purpose can only be achieved if a report has the following qualities and characteristics:

1. It should be factual: Every report should be based on facts, verified information and valid proofs.

2. Clear and Easily understandable: Explained below

3. Free from errors and duplication

4. Should facilitate the decision makers in making the right decision:

5. Result focused and result oriented

6. Well organized and structured

7. Ethical reporting style

Reader-Friendly

Readers are various stakeholders who receive reports generated by M&E. If reports are reader-friendly, they are likely to be read, remembered and acted upon. Following decisions need to be made by CSOs to make their reports reader-friendly:

What do they need to know?

When do they need to know?

How do they like to know?

Easy, Simple Language

M&E reports are meant to inform not impress. Using easy, simple language, be it Urdu or English makes the report friendly on reader. To do this, here are some useful tips:

Write only what is necessary

Avoid repetition and redundancy

Give interesting and relevant information

Avoid preaching or lecturing

Compose short and correct sentences

Purposeful Presentation

Each report has some objective(s) to meet. The "objective" comes from analyzing the needs of the reader. A CSO is working for a project that has several donors, and is channeled through an agency that needs to be informed about some specific things going on in the field. CSOs reports are the main pathways or channels of information to the people who decide to fund this and other such projects. Similarly, field reports are the amin vehicles for the management of the CSOs to make decision regarding the project itself. A good report presents facts and arguments in a manner that supports the purpose of the report.

Organized and Well-Structured

Each CSO comes up with a format of internal reporting to suit its requirements. Reporting to donors is done on their prescribed formats. The M&E system should be able to generate information that can be organized using different formats. In the annex, this manual provides some useful formats that can be customized by a CSO.

Result-Focused

In general, all readers are interested in the RESULTS. Therefore, one over-riding principle that CSOs should aim for in all report writing is to report on the results of their activities. This requires some analysis on their part that goes beyond a mere description of their activities. Result-focused means that description of activities is liked with the project objectives. This aspect must be addressed especially in the project progress reports. According to Phil Bartle, "A good progress report is not merely a descriptive activity report, but must analyze the results of those reported activities. The analysis should answer the question, "How far have the project objectives been reached?"

Timely Prepared and Dispatched

M&E generate "Information Products", a customized set of information according to needs to a defined group of users. M&E's information products are time-bound for both internal and external stakeholders. Reports, in suitable formats, need to be timely produced and made available to the readers. It is useful to develop an Information Product Matrix (IPM) like the one described below:

Straightforward

A good report is straight forward, honest description. It contains no lies, no deception, no fluff. It is neat, readable and to-the-point. It is well spaced, has titles and subtitles and is free of language errors.

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Qualities and Characteristics of Good Reports

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A lot of reports are written daily. Some of them are intended to document the progress of some activities, feasibility reports, investigation reports, some of the reports are for monitoring purposes, some are evaluation reports but it is clear that all the reports have some objective and purpose behind it.

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REPORT WRITING:TYPES, FORMAT, STRUCTURE AND RELEVANCE

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IT BASICALLY DEALS WITH WHAT A REPORT IS, ITS DIFFERENT TYPES, ITS STRUCTURE AND FORMAT AND FINALLY ITS RELEVANCE IN TODAY'S WORLD