"Almost 50% of all sexual crimes involve incidents of serious offenses against children. Every third victim of rape is a minor," Alexander Bastrykin said.
In the first half of 2008, more than 40,000 crimes against children were recorded in Russia, with around 4,500 sexual abuse cases registered. In the first nine months of the year, 1,622 children said they had been targeted with 724 alleging sexual abuse.
Bastrykin said that it was as if no one was looking at measures to deal with this problem, adding that some kind of system was needed to highlight potential cases and prevent child abuse in Russia.
He proposed establishing a working group with the Interior Ministry aimed at "improving the effectiveness of investigating such crimes."
In January-October 2008, more than 2,000 criminal cases were opened involving the sexual abuse of children.
