Sexual Abuse: Overt and Inconspicuous Signs

Domestic violence can be heard all around the house in the not so fortunate victim homes. Yet, sexual abuse is a silent scar that can hide in generations of families. Sometimes the signs of sexual abuse within the family are harder to detect when you are closest to the suffering.

Men get most of the blame when it comes to abuse. Most rapes are committed by men. Most victims are female. But there are also the fewer women who commit these silent crimes. Sometimes it is an aunt, a grandmother or the mother who have issues of pedophilia. Sometimes the wife verbally abuses her husband and makes him feel less than manly or just less than capable to be a human being.

Some signs of sexual abuse, verbal and physical, are:

(1) inappropriate touching. If a parent is giving a child a bath, and the parent washes the child in an inappropriate manner in an inappropriate place, it is a form of sexual abuse. It can be a mom washing a son, mom her daughter, dad his son or dad his daughter.
(2) exposure to pornographic and/or graphically violent material, especially at an early age
(3) belittling and/or insulting comments about a person's genitalia, body or weight
(4) exposure to parental liaisons at any age. Children should not be exposed to their parents private affairs.

There are also passive aggressive signs of sexual abuse:
(1) Not supporting a child's healthy learning of their own sexuality
(2) If you see the mom or the dad doesn't like any boyfriend or girlfriend ever, put up your own red flag.
(3) Belittling examples and models of the opposite sex as potential suitors
(4) Fostering mistrust of potential suitors
(5) praise of individual for taking part in any of the above

When fathers violate their daughters, especially those of age, consequences may take the form of a child. The same can happen if the mother, young enough, takes an abnormal and twisted interest in her teenage son. If a woman exhibits any signs toward her daughter, it may not be construed as abuse to the average observer, but it is abuse. A woman may be a lesbian but if she approaches her daughter, she is a pedophile. A man may be gay but if he violates his son, he is an abuser and a pedophile.

These children want to grow in their sexuality normally without any confusing help from the mentally ill individuals just explained.

If you are one of those children, get help. If you're in that situation, discretely call an authority figure outside your home. If you're an adult survivor of childhood abuse, there are support groups to help you deal with unhealed wounds.

These are just ideas from personal experience plus educating authorities in my life to help those who may be struggling with things and are unsure about where to turn.

From a Christian perspective, God is always there, even in the midst of the deepest pain. Call on Him and He will get you to safer ground.

http://www.prevent-abuse-now.com/
http://www.allaboutcounseling.com/sexual_abuse.htm
http://www.apa.org/releases/sexabuse/
http://www.safechild.org/childabuse1.htm