KUALA LUMPUR: Experts are urging the authorities and ministries to work together to address the rising number of sexual crimes involving children.
This came in response after federal police Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain called for urgent attention to address mental health issues among minors, given the escalating threat of child crime.
Shuhaily said crimes involving minors, particularly those related to sexual addiction, often arose from underlying mental health problems.
To address this issue, Help University Institute of Crime and Criminology director Datuk Seri Dr Akhbar Satar emphasised the need for the police to collaborate with law enforcement and medical experts to prevent it from worsening.
He suggested including academicians specialising in child development and psychology in these efforts.
He said research showed criminal behaviour was not solely due to mental illness but resulted from biological, social and contextual factors.
"It involves nature and nurture (genetic and environmental) factors."
He said studies showed that people's propensity for criminal activity was shaped by genetics, hereditary variables and innate features.
He said criminologists acknowledged that nature and nurture played a role in psychological development and interacted in complex ways, including mental health in children.
Meanwhile, National Advisory Mental Health Council member Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye called for the Education Ministry and Health Ministry to work together and organise activities and programmes to create awareness about good mental health.
Lee, who is Alliance for A Safe Community chairman, said problematic behaviour, including criminal acts, occurred when people with mental disorders did not receive treatment.
He said early developmental years were crucial to children's mental wellbeing.
Factors include family violence, abandonment, unhealthy influences from social media, and a lack of knowledge about decision-making.
He said parents and educators played major roles in caring for and guiding children.
"There should be a mental health programme in pre-marriage courses and sex education for adolescents to promote mental health awareness and reduce stigma, encouraging help-seeking behaviour.
"The government should also include mental health in the school syllabus, such as self-care, resilience and healthy gadget use."
Police said 2,722 cases of child sexual crime involving children were recorded from 2020 to April this year.
Bukit Aman's Sexual, Women and Child Investigation Division principal assistant director Senior Assistant Commissioner Siti Kamisah Hasan said these cases included incest, sexual harassment, unnatural sex, pornography, sexual communication, physical and non-physical sexual abuse.