Hands Off!

Child Sexual Abuse

Children, they are our future presidents, our future doctors, our future engineers, our future pioneers. All in all, children are our future leaders. But what if that child feels hopeless in their own survival as a human being. What if that child questions their own humanity? What if that child feels it is normal to be mistreated? In other words, child sexual abuse is an issue that is primitive to my community and to me as well.

What is Child Sexual Abuse?

In the article, "Darkness to Light" it defines child sexual abuse under three categories which are:

• any sexual act between an adult and a minor, or between two minors, when one exerts power over the other.

• forcing, coercing or persuading a child to engage in any type of sexual act.1

• non-contact acts such as exhibitionism, exposure to pornography, voyeurism, and communicating in a sexual manner by phone or Internet.1

Why is Child Sexual Abuse important?

According to the webpage, "The Center for Family Justice. Hope Starts Here." it states "1 in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys will be sexually assaulted by the time they reach 18." Also, the webpage continues to state, "More than 90% of child sexual abuse victims know their attacker." Moreover, the article "Darkness to Light"illustrates that about 38% child victims report that they have been sexually abused however some don't even report at all.

How are child sexual abuse victims affected?

A child who has suffered through child sexual abuse can be affected in the long-term. The article, "Darkness to Light" states the following:


FACT: Mental health problems are a common long-term consequence of child sexual abuse.
https://www.d2l.org/education/5-steps/

• https://www.d2l.org/education/5-steps/Adult women who were sexually abused as a child are more than twice as likely to suffer from depression as women who were not sexually abused.75
• Adults with a history of child sexual abuse are more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt.76,77
• Females who are sexually abused are three times more likely to develop psychiatric disorders than females
  who are not sexually abused.78,79,80
• Among male survivors, more than 70% seek psychological treatment for issues such as substance abuse, suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide.81"
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0. Even though these long term affects can happen, it does not always mean that these problems can be guaranteed. Sometimes a victim of child sexual abuse can have one or two of these problems. Some may not even have any. Or, some might have all. It varies however, it can happen as well. 

How does Child Sexual Abuse affect me?

As a tutor at Huntington Dr. elementary school, my mission is to educate young students along with inspire them to want to achieve higher education in order to create their chances of being the leaders of this nation. This is important to me because I care a lot about these students and to here these statistics along with stories of survivors of child sexual abuse makes me question humanity and if children are really in safe in our community.  Also, I am a proud uncle to my lovely, beautiful, gorgeous niece Lailah and I feel it is important to understand this information in order to be woke and be aware of her safety. Plus, I have many little cousins and friends with kids who I genuinely care for and to hear children being sexually abused hurts me. No kid should ever go through this type of situation and be scarred for the rest of their life.

With child sexual abuse in mind, I felt pretty uncomfortable with building the bridge in transitioning from a regular topic of discussion like "how are you doing?" type of small talk into discussing child sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse is not an every day topic of discussion which is why I wanted to focus on this subject and ask members in my community about this subject.  My focus was approaching these individuals with two simple questions which were: "What are your thoughts on child sexual abuse?" and "How are you affected by child sexual abuse?".

With this in mind, I followed with a series of photos that had the writing "Hands Off" in palms of my participants who voiced their concerns to deliver a message to individuals to keeps their hands off these children.


Here are some folks who shared their thoughts on child sexual abuse:


Ashley Oroxon:
"It affects me because I see children as innocent human beings who do not deserve to be treated like this and as a aunt of an eight month old baby it would affect me a lot worse if things like this were ever to happen to her."

Audrey Oroxon:

 "Child sexual abuse affect me both physically and emotionally. Physically in a sense where I have personal suspicions upon a majority of the men that attempts to approach me. Emotionally in a sense where I feel degraded and worthless. In fewer words, child sexual abuse plays a traumatic role effective enough to have my fear with men." 





Lesly Barrios:

"Child sexual abuse affects me in a crucial way because I realize how inhuman the world really is. These innocent children are victims of sick individuals in the world, our world, and it is revolting to even imagine that there are people out there in our communities, and surroundings who think and act this way. To me, children have a special place in my heart. I personally have grown up with children in my household because my mother is a babysitter, I have grown attached to this specific child and my love for children has grown even more. Through his eyes, I see the way he views the world and it affects me because I know that it really is nothing compared to the world that I have seen. Children are so pure and
have so much to learn and be exposed too, and when you work with children, or are around children, you get to see things in an optimistic way. Concluding my thoughts, children should be treated with kindness ad respect, because that is simply what they deserve."

Damaris Rivas:

"Child sexual abuse is an act of crime that should be taken serious when mentioned. Often times children are afraid of voicing themselves because when they do they aren't taken serious or aren't believed. Due to the long term effects of CP each case should be handled thoughtfully and accordingly."

Monica Rubio:
"Child sexual abuse is a traumatic event that sticks with someone for the rest of their life. Child sexual abuse can occur because children are the most vulnerable ones, and if they feel lost, ashamed, or even to blame for, the abuse may continue. When I hear tragic events of children being abused my stomach aches, my heart hurts, and it's something that should be taken seriously. It is sick to know that there is crazy people out there that are capable of doing"stuff". I feel like parents should do the most to prevent tragic events, and to feel okay if they are being overprotected because children need to gain their trust, and set boundaries of what is right and what is wrong."


Vanessa Rubio:
"My thoughts on child sexual abuse is how can a person do such an act to a child?! It completely impacts a child life, it breaks their spirituality, trust and own self and their childhood. Also, in other countries, child sexual abuse goes unreported and in most cases there is no support."

Erica Martinez:"Sexual child abuse is a horrible crime. It is a crime that will significantly damage a child’s wellbeing. Therefore, we should invest in prevention programs that help educate adults on the risk factors and ways that we may be able to better control the risks. When a child becomes a victim of sexual abuse it affects us all either directly or indirectly. Children will endear long term consequences: emotional, cognitive and behavioral. If we want to see positive improvement/change in our society we need to make sure we are protecting our children. They are who will be the next leaders."

Anthony Ortega:
"I would say my thoughts on child sexual abuse are that it not only affects that individual but everyone who are associated with, the victims of abuse will be traumatized and those associates will deal with there re-accuring problems that follow with being abused. That being said having friends who have been or know people that have been abused can not be true to them selfs or other because are held back on what happened to them early in life. On how child sexual abuse affects me is that I'm always around kids as well as have a daughter, it gets me scared and anxious knowing that in the future being how unpredictable it is that one of these kids might be sexually abused and do not want them to go through something like that."

Talk more about Child Sexual Abuse

All in all, the point I'm trying emphasize in this blog is to include child sexual abuse into an everyday discussion rather than an uncomfortable one. Hopefully, this would trigger movements, leaders, higher awareness, and comfortability for individuals to stand together and take action against society's bad fruit. That being said, talk more about child sexual abuse. 

For more information, here are some resources on child sexual abuse: 

• https://www.childhelp.org
• https://www.d2l.org/education/5-steps/
• https://www.d2l.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/all_statistics_20150619.pdf
• https://safersmarterkids.org/teachers/curriculum/
• https://laurenskids.org/advocacy/
• https://www.taylorring.com/resources/local-resources-child-sexual-abuse-victims/

References:

• Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxonomic revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: E7720. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720. (n.d.). doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f
• Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Child Abuse Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2018, from https://centerforfamilyjustice.org/community-education/statistics

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