Report: Child Sexual Abuse in Mexico Increased by 1,113% in the Last Decade

Child sexual abuse is a persistent public health crisis in Mexico, having increased by 1,113% between 2010 and 2023, per a new report by Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México (Redim). The country is a key exporter of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) worldwide and a leader in other illicit activities tied to the sexual abuse of children.

In 2010, 791 minors between 1 and 17 years old were recorded as having received hospital care for sexual violence by the National Institute of Public Health (INSP). In 2023, the number increased exponentially to 9,802 cases, the report shows.

Data shows how the crime affects different subgroups. In 2023, 92.3% of the victims hospitalized for injuries related to sexual abuse were girls. Around 7.7% were boys. Among the victims, 333 were indigenous, and 168 had some form of disability.

According to experts, the data represents only the tip of the iceberg due to widespread underreporting, an issue the researchers attempted to combat using hospital records, however, they recognized the approach leaves out a significant amount of less violent abuse.

Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) revealed that Mexico recorded 5.4 million cases of child sexual abuse annually as of 2019.

Despite constitutional recognition of children's rights in 2000, she noted that justice remains elusive: out of every 1,000 crimes, only 100 are reported, 10 reach a judge, and just 1 ends in a conviction. Advocates argue that structural barriers like statutes of limitations and restrictions on early testimony severely limit justice access.

A large proportion of child sexual abuse in Mexico involves perpetrators who are part of a child's family or trusted inner circle, and reporting the crime is often discouraged by those close to the victim. Redim found that 13.4% of the victims between 1 and 17 years of age were abused by their father or stepfather.

Additionally, in January 2023, the OECD ranked Mexico first in child sexual abuse worldwide, leading in exploitation, homicides, and trafficking of minors, and first in the creation and distribution of child pornography.

In a June 2020 Mexican Senate bulletin, Congresswoman Verónica Beatriz Juárez Piña said that Mexico was exporting 60% of child pornography worldwide and that the rate had shot up to 73% during the lockdowns, per Catholic News Agency coverage of the event.

In an interview with El Financiero, Vivaldina Jaubert, director of the nongovernmental organization Alas for the Protection of Minors, revealed that "before the COVID-19 lockdowns, 600,000 predators were entering Mexico per year," approximately "one pedophile per minute."