Protecting children from sexual abuse: see the startling statistics
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - Multiple mental health professionals in the Tri-State sat down to discuss how you can protect your children from being another statistic.
In every community everywhere, children are being sexually abused. Statistics speak for themselves.
Kristine Cordts is the Executive director of Holly’s House, a child advocacy center located in Evansville.
“One in 10 children will be sexually abused before they are 18 and one in 5 children will be solicited online,” said Cordts.
The fact that 10% of children will be sexually abused is alarming for anyone to hear.
From a young age, children are taught the dangers of strangers. When it comes to sexual abuse, statistics say perpetrators are likely those closest to the family and child.
Two years ago, “94% of the perpetrators were family members or close family friends. 47% of those were mom’s romantic partner,” said Cordts. “It’s people who want to create a relationship, a trusted relationship with a parent and then a child. They are the ones who are abusing our kids.”
When children experience any type of trauma, they experience changes. It can include anything from social, emotional, and even physical changes. It’s important for caregivers to look out for these symptoms.
“You’ll see a child get angry, you’ll see a child retreat and get sad and not want to spend time with anyone,” said Cordts. “Maybe they are numbing by playing video games all the time or watching YouTube all the time or numbing with something else.”
Sexual abuse, if not dealt with, has lasting effects on a child’s life even into adulthood. This includes the likelihood for addiction, pregnancy, STDs, and incarceration.
Cordts goes on to say that people who have been abused are likely to develop heart disease, diabetes and metabolic disease.
“If they’ve had six instances of adverse childhood experiences or more, they are more likely to die 20 years earlier,” said Cordts. “We’ve got to protect our future by not letting them experience this trauma and then live through it. Kids who go through this type of trauma can quickly go through PTSD and they could live with that for a lifetime.”
This begs the question for who you as a parent are able to truly trust with your child.
Emily Morrison is the Clinical Services Director with the Lampion Center and shares steps parents can take now to protect their children from even those you trust.
“Prevention and protection starts long before there is an actual danger,” said Morrison. “It starts from the very beginning when our children are so small to start helping them understand their bodies and good healthy personal boundaries so that when someone violates those boundaries with a child your kids have those ‘uh oh’ kind of a feeling so they know something is not right.”
Morrison goes on to say how important open communication is with your child. Checking in and asking tough questions like, “Is there anything bothering you at school?” to “Has someone made you feel uncomfortable?” is a great place to start. This leads children to understand that it’s ok to bring difficult topics and situations to trustworthy caregivers.
“If we do suspect or if someone discloses or we discover child sexual abuse is happening, we don’t have to know the whole story,” said Morrison. “We don’t want parents to do a whole investigation, but we have to know that i’s every adult’s mandated responsibility by law actually that if we suspect then we report to child protective services or law enforcement.”
Multiple organizations throughout the tri-state work to advocate and protect children. Suzanne Draper is the executive director for Vanderburgh County Court Appointed Special Advocates, also known as CASA. The mission of CASA is to advocate for children who are abused and neglected in court.
“Abuse and neglect whether it’s sexual abuse, neglect, physical abuse whatever it may be is difficult to talk about, it’s difficult to be involved with, but shame on us if we don’t try and it is our responsibility to advocate for these children,” Draper shares.
“What’s difficult is people don’t want to get involved, but if it was your child, you would want someone to stand up and get involved. Kids need to talk about it, they need to know it’s not a secret. They need to talk about it to a therapist, to their parents, to anyone that will listen, and our advocate can be that person.”
No information is too small to report. If you know of a child being abused, call the hotline at 1-800-800-5556.
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