Chief Justice Anthony Gates says the figures on sexual offences against children is particularly troubling.
While speaking at the launch of the Balancing the Scales report by the Fiji Women's Rights Movement, Chief Justice Gates says last year 59% of the victims of rape were children.
He says we do not have the answers yet and much more will need to be done by psychologists and experts in the field before we will know clearly why this is and what steps are needed to prevent and to treat.
Chief Justice Gates says for now the courts must express the revulsion felt by the community by imposing appropriate punishment.
He says when the courts know more, that response will be replaced by something curative of this grave problem in our midst.
Chief Justice Gates says for many these long prison terms will never be enough.
He says undoubtedly there have been significantly more severe punishments being brought down by the courts in recent years.
Chief Justice Gates says strangely that change seems to go unacknowledged.
The report states that sexual offence cases heard in the Magistrates Court increased from 279 in 2007 to 2,036 cases in 2013.
By 2016, the number of cases fell to 675.
According to the statistics provided by the Director of Public Prosecutions Office, rape accounts for 71% of the sexual assault cases prosecuted.
Of these rape cases, 59% of the victims are children under the age of 18 years and 23% are living in a domestic relationship with the offender.
95% of the sexual offences are committed by adults while two thirds of the victims of sexual offences prosecuted by the DPP’s Office are children under the age of 18 years.
