Sexual abuse cases require more women police officers, according to a forum organised by the Gender and Development Research Institute and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Thailand ahead of International Women's Day on Tuesday.
During yesterday's forum, actress Panadda "Boom" Wongphudee shared her 10 years of experience in helping victims of sexual abuse.
She said providing help is often difficult as many victims have been sexually abused by a family member and so are reluctant to report what has happened as a crime.
Similarly, some are abused by a person with influence in the local area and so must travel to another province to file a report with the police.
For these reasons, Panadda urged the police to recruit more women to investigate cases as a female investigator can more easily establish rapport with female victims and help put them at ease.
She also said male investigators must be trained to learn proper ways of communicating with victims.
Thicha Nanakorn, director of the Baan Kanchanapisek Vocational Juvenile Training Centre, underscored the lack of progress in Thailand by noting the Defence Ministry's scrapping of female enrolment at the police cadet academy in Nakhon Pathom's Sam Phran district in 2019.
Ms Thicha added that while police can be any gender, they must be professional and thorough in their investigations.
She said police investigators also must treat everyone associated with a sexual abuse case as human beings and adopt sufficient understanding in the way they handle a case.