Stop violence against us!: Summary Report: a preliminary national research study into the prevalence and perceptions of Cambodian children to violence against children in Cambodia

Little research has been done to explore how violence affects children in Cambodia from their perspective or even the prevalence of the problem. This report is an attempt to get information about the prevalence of three aspects of the problem of violence against children – sexual abuse, domestic violence and corporal punishment. It is also an attempt to listen to children’s own perceptions and to continue to explore ways to address violence that include those not yet considered.

The research involved the use of focus groups followed by a National self completed questionnaire survey of 13-14 year olds from all provinces. The sample is of 1314 children, 671 girls and 639 boys. Originally the survey was of 13 and 14 year olds; but 100, 12 year olds (7.6%) and 119, 15 year olds (9.1%) were also included.

The researchers found that:

• half of boys (50.5%) and 36.4% of girls admitted to having been beaten by their parents. 82.4% of girls and 81.1% of boys say they have seen other children being beaten by their parents.
• 63.5% of girls and 64.0% of boys say they know children who have been raped. 21.4% of girls and 23.5% of boys say they have witnessed the rape of a child by an adult. 13.5% of girls and 15.7% of boys say they have been sexually touched on the genitals before 9 years old and 13.5% of girls and 18.9% of boys say they have been sexually touched on the genitals after 9 years old
• nearly one quarter (24.1%) of girls and 34.7% of boys said that they had been beaten by their teacher in school.

The authors argue that a paradigm shift is needed for people to realise that violence is not the way to deal with every problem. A change in people’s attitudes to violence will only happen, however, when there is good collaboration from a wide range of Government, International Organisations and NGOs who have a vested interest in seeing a Cambodia free of violence, and that includes the Ministries of Education, Health, Social Affairs, Women’s Affairs, Interior and Justice.

The paper concludes with a list recommendations to Government Departments, Researchers and NGOs.

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