KUALA LUMPUR: The number of people lodging police reports on sexual harassment has increased showing that more victims are brave enough to step forward to make a report.
Women’s Development Department director-general Datuk Munirah Abdullah Bajanudin said police statistics showed that 7,398 sexual harassment cases were reported in 2012 compared with 7,603 last year.
“The increase also showed that more women today are brave enough to step forward and give evidence relating to the violence that occurred to them,” she said during a sexual harassment at the workplace awareness seminar organised by the Crime Prevention Awareness Board yesterday.
The department’s deputy director-general Azizah Che Rashid, who read out the speech on behalf of Munirah, said as many as 1,867 sexual harassment cases had been reported from January to March this year.
“Sexual harassment has to be taken seriously because it has negative impact on the victims as well as employers,” she said.
Earlier, one of the seminar speakers, Sexual Investigation Unit head DSP Zaiton Che Lah, said only 25% of the nearly 2,700 rape cases reported yearly were brought to court each year.
She said one reason for the low figures was the long wait for the chemistry report, resulting in the release of the suspect on bail.
However, when the police had to search for the suspect again, some could no longer be located, she said.
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