City teens most prone to sexual assault: report

Delhi's teenagers are most vulnerable to sexual predators, a report has revealed. The study, conducted by Delhi Police, claims that almost half the victims of the total number of cases of sexual assault reported this year were aged between 12 and 18 years. Jatin Anand reports.

Delhi's teenagers are most vulnerable to sexual predators, a report has revealed.

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The study, conducted by Delhi Police, claims that almost half the victims of the total number of cases of sexual assault reported this year were aged between 12 and 18 years.

It also pointed out that a majority of them came from 'economically less-privileged' households.

"A total 635 cases of rape were reported till December 15 this year. Of these, as many as 285 victims or 45 per cent were either teenagers or pre-teens," said an officer.

For instance, on February 10, a class eight student of a government school was abducted and gangraped by three people, including a juvenile, in east Delhi's Jyoti Nagar.

Just 18 days later, three juveniles were nabbed for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at Badarpur.

The same report, police said, puts the number of victims of sexual assault between the ages of 18 and 25 at around 158 or 25 per cent and those aged above 25 years at 95 or 15 per cent. As many as 89 girls - from newborns to 12-year-olds - were also found to have been victimised.

Around 60 per cent of the victims came from less-privileged homes, around 40 per cent from the middle strata of society and just 0.16 per cent of the complainants belonged to the upper class.

"Younger girls seem to be victimised mostly because of their psychological vulnerability to conceal the crime. The accused exploit this to his advantage," said an officer claiming that victims from this particular age group were least likely to report the abuse.