Cases of neglect of parental duty and responsibility keep rising in the Central Region, with 1,131 of such cases recorded last year as against 1,075 in 2007.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Felicia Ayensu, officer in charge of the regional branch of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), who made this known to the GNA in Cape Coast on Wednesday, said the Unit was unhappy that such cases were on the rise despite a number of programmes to educate the public for the proper care of children.
She said the total number of cases reported to the Unit, was, however, 2,076 cases.
These included 379 cases of assault, 111 of threat of death, 38 each of child stealing and causing damage, 15 each of indecent assault and rape, 17 each of defilement and causing harm, 20 abductions and four criminal abortions.
ASP Ayensu said the unit, was doing its best to help reduce cases of parental neglect, particularly on the part of men, and observed that the problem was common in the region, where most fathers failed to cater for their children.
The women, she added, also left children to their fate, when they felt overburdened.
She stressed that if this behaviour was not nipped in the bud, it would result in the production of social miscreants because the affected children would drop out of school and eventually join bad companies.
ASP Ayensu, in this regard, appealed to parents, especially fathers in the region to change their attitudes for the better and make the education of their wards paramount to help secure them a better future.
On the resolution of the cases reported to the Unit, ASP Ayensu said
some were amicably settled with the parties thoroughly counselled, the serious ones were prosecuted, but others were still under investigation.
She urged couples to avoid domestic violence at all times and to resort to dialogue to settle matters, because the law would take its due course when anyone was found culpable.