Mexico City launches campaign against child molestation

In an effort to fight sexual abuse against minors, Mexico City's Attorney General's Office has launched several workshops that raise awareness and teach citizens how to identify, prevent and report sexual abuse in minors.

The Attorney General said that from 2015 through September of this year, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, rape and domestic violence represented 35.82% of all crimes, and minors were commonly involved.

In a press statement, the Attorney General said that out of this type of crime, sexual abuse was the most common, with 1,281 victims registered during this period in the city; 1,123 of the victims were girls. Furthermore, out of the 390 victims of rape, 337 were underage girls.

Of these crimes, only 138 ended up in the launching of proper investigations. Rulings have yet to be handed down by Mexico's criminal court system in relation to these crimes.

To prevent these types of crimes from happening, Liliana Mijangos Contreras, the interinstitutional coordinator for the Investigative Prosecutor in Sexual Crimes, gave several of these workshops aimed at putting an end to sexual violence in Mexico City.

According to Liliana, minors who fall victims to these types of crimes constantly show signs of touching their privates, changes in their behavior, constantly cry, become isolated and have recurring nightmares.

(Young girl shown here playing with Botsy, the interactive martian who teaches children how to report cases of sexual abuse. Photo: EL UNIVERSAL)

Since 2012, Mexico City's Attorney General has used a virtual martian named Bosty, who was designed by a specialized team of scientists and psychologists to raise awareness with children and parents and teach them how to prevent and report these crimes.