The number of reported sexual assaults against minors has risen by 29 percent in the past year, social agencies say.They believe the increase is indicative of a rise in the total number of cases on the Island.The number of complaints rose from 89 in 2009 to 115 in 2010.According to the Department of Child and Family Services, 87 of the 115 cases reported in 2010 involved young females.Said supervisor Glenda Edwards: “The majority of cases fall between the ages of ten and 14, but there has also been an increase in the category of very young children, as young as four.”Detective Superintendent Antoine Daniels shared statistics from the Bermuda Police Service from the past year.They showed that there were:l ten sexual assaults reported in the first quarter of 2011, with three involving children;l nine in the first quarter of 2010, five of which involved children;l six in the first quarter of 2009, with five offences involving children.Det Supt Daniels said: “The Bermuda Police Service has not dedicated any additional resources to the investigation of child sex crimes, but has ensured that the Vulnerable Persons Unit remains fully staffed with highly trained, experienced and dedicated personnel, who work in close partnership with the Department of Child and Family Services.”There has been an increase in the prosecution of sex offenders in the past year, Ms Edwards added.“We had eight prosecutions last year, and these are cases which are difficult to prosecute. I think this increase is in part because the courts have become more user-friendly for children.”The Family Centre has also seen an increase in the number of children in need of help.Executive director Martha Dismont said: “I've always contended that in Bermuda we have a disproportionate number of challenges, of families struggling, and consequently what happens is we can have a spike in sexual assault reports, divorce, anti-social behaviour. We have things going on in this Island that are fuelling this, and that we haven't been able to stop.”The Bermuda Civil Society Project report (available at www.centreonphilanthrophy.org) produced last year saw input from more than 80 charities and social service agencies.The report revealed unhealthy relationships in society were the result of “multi-generational unaddressed trauma” and was the reason why most families who sought assistance from social service agencies had done so.Said Ms Dismont: “There are emotional issues over generations which have never been dealt with.“Getting rid of corporal punishment in schools has been part of getting rid of this nonsense we've been saddled with. There's a colonial legacy where children are seen as objects, to be seen and not heard.“I have a staff member who thinks people in Bermuda have serious intimacy issues it's okay to have sex with whomever. If Bermuda is not really addressing traditions of bad practices, then certain people just keep perpetuating it.”She continued: “Sexual abuse is particularly bad, because unfortunately, if that isn't addressed, the result is that people become the perpetrators.”Families in Bermuda today face a combination of stresses, Ms Dismont said. Economic pressures have strained traditional family means of caring for children, while unemployment may exacerbate existing problems.“If you're a person who's not emotionally well and you lose your job, you might hit your children.”The pervasiveness of the internet may be an added pressure for children, she said.“[It] is part of what's piling onto us. It exposes children to new risks and one way to mitigate that risk is to teach protective values. The old days had risks. Children had to learn how to be safe around fire, or how to use an axe. Kids now have to learn how to be safe around a new form of technology.”A number of measures for tackling sex offenders against children have been floated in recent years. In the wake of Ze Selassie's 2009 conviction for murdering 14-year-old schoolgirl Rhiana Moore, the Coalition for the Protection of Children and the Women's Resource Centre called for a public sex offenders' register.Currently, such information is held confidential by police although the Department of Child and Family Services also maintains a child abuse register, which is used by employers to check if applicants for jobs involving children have related convictions.”I have to admit I don't have a position yet on a public register,” Ms Dismont said.“I think the public needs to be aware of offenders. At the same time, we need to be a more compassionate society, and not simply humiliate people. People still have to live in society. If they've served their time, do we welcome them back? I know some people are so angry about the perpetrators of these heinous acts, but I also think sometimes people who have been perpetrated against can sometimes be more understanding. Remember, most people are not born with this desire. The public needs to be aware of who they are, but there has to be an element of compassion as well.”Former Attorney General Kim Wilson proposed electronic tagging as a means of monitoring paedophiles.Government would not provide an update on those plans yesterday.Ms Dismont said she was in support of the initiative, depending on how the technology was used.“If it's to tell if someone is in a certain location at a certain time, that's not a bad idea, as long as we don't interfere with people's basic human rights.”However, in ultimately tackling Bermuda's pervasive social ills, she suggested: “We tend to work from a more limited mentality of looking at the negatives instead of building on the strengths of the community. Maybe what we need is to look at programmes that are about wellness.“There's a programme in California called The Wooden Floor. It's a dance programme for lower-income families. Two stats have come out of it. One was that 100 percent of the children who went through the programme graduated from high school. The second is that nearly 100 percent of those children were accepted into college. What is it that makes it so successful? Wrapped around the dance programme are all kinds of support programmes that are spin-offs tutoring for families, financial planning, academic support, job search and summer programmes. It starts with dance as a focus.“What if we used something like a football club as a wrap-around? If we have so many troubled people in our community, how do we get them to seek help? We could do it through something like this, by providing access to supportive resources that are wrapped around something positive.”Useful web links: www.tfc.bm, www.centreonphilanthrophy.org, www.saintjosephballet.org.