SEKSUALNO ZLOSTAVLJANJE I ISKORIŠTAVANJE DJECE U HRVATSKOJ
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION IN CROATIA

Summary/Abstract: Relevant international institutions estimate that millions of children around the world are victims of sexual abuse and exploitation each year. According to the latest global data, 18% of girls and 7.6% of boys up to the age of 18 are victims of sexual violence worldwide. European and Croatian data are also within the mentioned limits. The first step of a responsible societal response to the problem of child sexual victimization (after the creation of an appropriate legal framework) is the monitoring of the problem at the national level. Therefore, the aim of this work was to determine 1. The extent of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children in Croatia, 2. the judicial practice of punishing the perpetrator, 3. the characteristics of the crime and the perpetrator, and 4. the duration of the proceedings. Data on crimes of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children were analyzed according to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics in the period from 2013 to 2021. The analysis shows that the perpetrators of these crimes make up a smaller part of the total number of perpetrators and that the most common crime is sexual abuse of a child under the age of 15. Offenders of these crimes are usually sentenced to unconditional prison terms and with duration of 6 to 12 months. One-third of offenders commit crimes in concurrence of criminal offences, a smaller proportion in complicity, and one-fifth of offenders have prior convictions. The perpetrators are mainly men with completed high school education, of Croatian nationality, who are unmarried. The process from application to final judgment usually takes a year or more. The results of the analysis point to further issues that need to be investigated.

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