Silent War Against Children: Sexual Abuse

There is a silent war raging in our midst. This war is not on the evening news. This war is not detailed in newspapers. This war does not include military force. This war is quietly destroying innocent lives every day. The casualties are our children; the cost is unfathomable. This war is called child sexual abuse and we, as a society, are losing.

Child sexual abuse takes countless children hostage every day. Most research indicates that one out of every three girls and one out of every five boys will be sexually abused before the age of eighteen. These numbers are so astonishing and shocking that it is not unusual for persons to disbelieve them. Therein lies the problem. We choose day after day not to believe the least corruptive members of our communities. How can this many innocent lives fall victim to child sexual abuse? In America, we hear time and again that our children are the future, that they are our most valuable resources, that society places them in a valued position. But do we really? Our legal system does not bear these sentiments out in cases of sexual abuse.

When a child discloses sexual abuse, there are limited resources that assist his/her maneuvering through the courts to hold the perpetrator accountable. The legal system has been designed for adults perpetrating crimes against other adults. Only in recent years have any efforts been made to accommodate child victims of adult crimes. Most of our courts still insist on the child victim facing their perpetrator in the courtroom. While this can be difficult for adults, the impact on a child can be devastating. Time after time, the child and family hear, "It is the child's word against the adult's word. There is no way to prove that this crime took place." True, there are usually no witnesses to a crime of child sexual abuse. Perpetrators rely on secrecy to carry out their crimes. Perpetrators know too well that if a case is ever prosecuted, jurors will have difficulty believing such an atrocious act has been committed in the first place. In the courtroom setting, the child's character, age, words, and feelings are used against them by the defense attorney to prove their client's innocence. Perpetrators and their attorneys count on this and use it repeatedly while presenting their side of the case.

How, then, do we fight this war? How do we protect our children and uphold our societal values that they are, in fact, our most valuable resources? First, we must name it. We must be able to say to ourselves and to each other that child sexual abuse does exist and that it is pervasive. We must begin to believe in the innocence of a child that has the courage to say that an adult has touched his/her body in a sexual manner. Then, and only then, can we fight a war that historically, just as the abuse itself, has existed in a deadly silence.