Sexual abuse of Maori children

On the eve of Rape Awareness Week, an Anglican Minister reiterated these claims;

“Organisers of this week estimate that 1 in every 3-5 girls, and 1 out of every 6-10 boys are likely to be sexually abused or raped before they turn 16. Maori children are twice as likely as other groups to be abused so rape and sexual violation of children is a very serious issue for us.”

Just using some loose numbers let's say that means 1 in every 1.5 - 2.5 Maori female children are sexually abused or raped before they turn 16.

Right now there are around 104,000 Maori female aged 0-15.

So between 41,600 and 68,640 are sexually abused or raped over fifteen years. Get real. Unless 'sexual abuse' includes inappropriate touching or unwanted kissing.

In the 11 months to December 2006 there were 397 findings of sexual abuse among Maori children (not to be confused with 397 children being sexually abused - multiple findings may apply to one child.) Extrapolate that over 15 years to get 6,496 findings which could apply to either sex.

Yes, an amount of sexual abuse will go unreported and uninvestigated but let's keep some sense of perspective here.