The number of reported child-abuse cases increased 16-fold between fiscal 1990 and 2000, according to a government report released Tuesday.

The Cabinet Office's annual white paper on youth showed that reported abuse cases rose from 1,101 in fiscal 1990 to 17,275 in fiscal 2000.

The number of cases reported to child welfare centers and police has been rising every year since the government began compiling statistics in 1990.

Physical abuse was the most common form, at 50.1 percent, followed by neglect at 35.6 percent, psychological abuse at 10 percent and sexual abuse at 4.3 percent, the report says.

About 60 percent of reported abusers were mothers, while fathers accounted for 30 percent. Babies, toddlers and preschoolers accounted for half of the victims.

Last year, police dealt with 1,574 child-abuse cases, a 17.3 percent increase over 2000. They intervened in 189 of them and took into custody 216 perpetrators. The number of victims totaled 194, 61 of whom died.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry attributes the increase to mothers who have nowhere to turn to when they have problems with child-rearing, often because they are isolated within the nuclear family and have few links with the community.

However, experts say that part of the increase can be attributed to heightened public awareness of child abuse, which used to be considered a domestic matter in many cases.

On juvenile crime, the report says 138,654 people aged between 14 and 19 were taken into custody for various criminal offenses in 2001, a 4.8 percent increase from the year before and the first rise in three years.

By age, 16-year-olds topped the list, followed by 15-year-olds and 14-year-olds. Youths of those three ages accounted for 66.4 percent of the total, with most of them, or 59,072, being high school students.

Although the number of juveniles taken into custody in 2001 in connection with paint thinner or stimulant use declined, those nabbed for crimes related to cannabis shot up for the first time in three years, to 176, the report says.

The number of youths taken into custody for violent crimes, including robbery, murder and rape -- with robbery topping the list -- increased by 0.3 percent.