Sexual assaults made up more than 75 percent of the assault cases involving girls in Guangdong province over the past three years, and most of the victims knew the offenders.

The data was revealed on Monday in a report released jointly by the Guangdong provincial women's federation and the provincial procuratorate.

Public prosecution departments of the procuratorates across the province processed 2,267 assaults cases involving girls aged 18 and under, between 2008 and June 2011, the report showed.

Girls were sexually assaulted in 1,708 of those cases, with the offenses including rape, child molestation and forcing, organizing or enticing prostitution, Yang Shiqiang, head of the rights and interests department of the women's federation, said at a seminar on Tuesday.

About half of the sexual assault victims were girls below the age of 14. Many of the girls lived in rural areas and were children of migrant workers who had left their homes to work in cities, according to the report.

More than 65 percent of the offenders were people the victims had known, including neighbors, friends, parents' co-workers, relatives and teachers. A large number of the offenders were men above the age of 50 and below 20, most of whom had an education level no higher than junior high school, the report showed.

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