Child Sexual Abuse

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Part 2 of 4 in the series Battered

The average age of remembering childhood incest is between 29 and 49. — FMSF Newsletter

In 1999, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article “Back to school: Parents urged to discuss sex, safety” points to the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center report that one in three girls and one in five boys will be sexually assaulted by the time they are 16 years old [John N. Briere, Child Abuse Trauma (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1992); Diana E. Russell, The Secret Trauma: Incest in the Lives of Girls and Women (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1986)].1 According to Dr. N. Faulkner, “in 90% of the rapes of children less than 12 years old, the child knew the offender, according to police-recorded incident data.” 2 USA Today reports that “family members account for 33% to 50% of abuse against girls and 10% to 20% against boys.” 3

Ira A. Lipman writes in How to Protect Yourself from Crime:

Depending on their relationship to the children, molesters use a wide variety of tactics to lure children. A family member might feign love and affection; a teacher, member of the clergy, police officer, or baby-sitter might use his or her position of authority; an older friend or companion might utilize games or pornography; a stranger might try bribery, requests for assistance, or citing an emergency.

The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) even publishes instructions on how to lure children.

According to a June 2000 Yahoo! News report, the FBI’s Pete Gulotta noted that “the people who commit these crimes against children are bright people. Many of them are above-average intelligence, with more money than most, professionals. We’ve arrested elementary school principals, military officers, computer programmers, attorneys, accountants, even a Broadway producer.” 4

With the invention of the Internet, predators can search for websites containing child pornography and troll for young victims in chat rooms. Some may even attempt to meet the child in person. In 1999, for example, Disney’s Go Network’s Infoseek search engine executive vice president Patrick Naughten admitted to traveling across state lines to meet a child for sex. The codeveloper of the Java programming language agreed to a plea bargain to develop software to catch other predators like himself.5

In 2006, Department of Homeland Security press aide Brian J. Doyle “allegedly provided his government-issued office phone and cell phone numbers, showed off his department ID and may have used his official computer in…communications with an undercover…sheriff’s detective who was posing as [a] 14-year-old girl,” reports the website FOXNews.com.6 “Doyle sent the ‘girl’ 16 ‘hard core’ pornographic images” – videos by other reports – “through the Internet and ‘asked if she would engage in those kind of acts with him,’” Sheriff Grady Judd said in an interview reported by The Ledger Online.7

Also in 2006, Florida House Representative Mark Foley was accused of “making sexual overtures to boys working as attendants in Congress,” writes Stephanie Griffith for theage.com.au. Senior Capitol Hill aide Kirk Forham warned House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s office more than three years before about Foley’s inappropriate behaviour. The article continues:

Kirk Fordham, a close friend of Mr Foley, resigned on [4 October] as chief of staff for Tom Reynolds, a powerful Republican leader in the House of Representatives, to protect Mr Reynolds from being further implicated in charges of covering up Mr Foley’s alleged predatory behaviour towards teenage boys.8

While law enforcement attempts to catch predators before they can abuse, pedophile social workers, psychiatrists, police and judges take positions where they can intercept and cover-up accusations of abuse. In 1996, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) Child Protective Services (CPS) social worker Harold “Harry” Pitcock admitted to having sex with children in his care.9

Sigmund Freud tried to expose the extent of child sexual abuse, but his initial presentation brought peer reprisals. He retracted his assertion of a connection between “hysteria” and abuse, and controversy over his “seduction theory” has raged ever since.10

Today we are discovering how neglect can cause hyperactivity, abuse can cause borderline personality disorder,11 and in severe cases multiple personalities (dissociative identity disorder).12 The Center for Sex Offender Management’s Training Curriculum manual states:

As many as 70 percent of the victims of sexual assault do not experience visible injury. This does not mean, however, that the trauma associated with the assault is insignificant. Victims who have no obvious physical injuries may experience extensive trauma related to the guilt associated with not having the physical injuries to prove that they resisted and are not “at fault” for the assault perpetrated on them. Indeed, some of the most devastating effects on victims include guilt, shame, embarrassment, powerlessness, fear, anger, and a sense of betrayal [Kilpatrick, D, Edmonds, C, & Seymour, A (1992). Rape in America: A Report to the Nation. Charleston: National Victim Center and Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Medical University of South Carolina, 4].

A typical reaction of someone who has been sexually assaulted is denial that the abuse occurred and a great desire to forget about the incident [Darke, J. L. (1990). Sexual Aggression: Achieving Power through Humiliation, in Handbook of Sexual Assault: Issues, Theories, and Treatment of the Offender, WL Marshall, DR Laws, and HE Barbaree (eds.). Plenum Press, New York, NY, 60].13


Related links

1 Sarah Skidmore, “Back to school: Parents urged to discuss sex, safety,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 19 August 1999, at http://www.seattlepi.com/local/skul19.shtml (retrieved: August 1999).

2 Dr. N. Faulkner, “Sexual Abuse Statistics – Page 2,” PANdora’s Box, at http://www.prevent-abuse-now.com/stats2.htm (retrieved: 4 October 2011).

3Janet Kornblum, “Calls to sex abuse hotlines increase after scandal,” USA Today, 19 June 2002, at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/06/19/sex-abuse-usat.htm (retrieved: 4 October 2011).

4 Kenneth Pringle (APBnews.com), “Ruling defines limits of online sex stings,” Yahoo! News, 29 June 2000, at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ (retrieved: June 2000).

5 The Associated Press, “Infoseek exec. nabbed in sex sting; Accused of using Net to solicit teen sex,” USA Today, 20 September 1999; See also Keith Alexander, “Arrest threatens career of Net star,” USA Today, 21 September 1999; Ed Scannel and Bob Trott (InfoWorld Electric), “Java developer arrested in FBI sting,” International Data Group (IDG.net), 21 September 1999.

6 Associated Press, “Former Homeland Security Press Aide Pleads Not Guilty to Sex Charges,” FOXNews.com 23 May 2006, at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196696,00.html (retrieved: 4 October 2011).

7 Gabrielle Finley, “U.S. Official Faces Polk Sex Charges,” TheLedger.com, 5 April 2006, at http://www.theledger.com/article/20060405/NEWS/604050371?p=2&tc=pg (retrieved: 4 October 2011).

8 Stephanie Griffith, “Foley email scandal claims senior aide,” The Age, 6 October 2006, at http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/foley-email-scandal-claims-senior-aide/2006/10/05/1159641461847.html (retrieved: 4 October 2011).

9 Kevin Crosby, “DSHS, CPS and the O.K. Boy’s Ranch,” SkewsMe.com, at http://www.skewsme.com/dshs_ranch.html (retrieved: 4 October 2011).

10 Kevin Crosby, “Freud and Seduction Theory Reconsidered,” SkewsMe.com, at http://www.skewsme.com/freud.html (retrieved: 4 October 2011).

11“Borderline Personalilty Disorder and Sexual Abuse,” at The Awareness Center, Inc., the Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA), at http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/BPD.html (retrieved: 7 February 2009).

12“Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personalities), Wikipedia.org, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder (retrieved: 7 February 2009).

13 “Section 1: Supervision Of Sex Offenders In The Community: An Overview,” Center for Sex Offender Management’s (CSOM) Training Manual, at http://www.csom.org/train/supervision/medium/section1/MediumSection1.pdf (retrieved: 4 October 2011).

See also

Kevin Crosby, “Child Sexual Abuse,” SkewsMe.com, at http://www.skewsme.com/abuse.html (retrieved: 4 October 2011).

Related books

“Anastasia came to a decision-making fork in the road. To take the path to the left meant that she would remain in the gloomy past and continue an endless journey of doom. To choose the right path meant making an all important choice of letting go of the past to move forward with purpose and conviction to a brighter and more eventful future. The choice was hers! Anastasia decided that she wanted to see the light at the end of the tunnel more than anything else in the world, so she stood before the ugliness of her past for the last time, said good-bye, and she headed rightward through a tunnel towards the pin of light that lay ahead of her.” Page 13-14. © Anita E. Wladichuk. www.ghostlyowl.com


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