Where

trauma stops

and healing

Monarch Children's

Child Sexual Abuse is not just something that happens to other people in other places.  Hundreds of children in this community are victims of child sexual abuse.  It occurs in all socio-economic levels, all ethnic groups and to both boys and girls.  Both men and women can be perpetrators of child sexual abuse.

A recent study confirmed the estimates that one-in-four girls and one-in-six boys experience some form of unwanted sexual physical contact prior to age 18.  Of adults who say they have been victims of any type of sexual assault, 70-80 percent say that the assault occurred prior to age 18.

Only about 1 in 10 victims of sexual assault ever reports the event to outside authorities.

Last year, over 250 children, ranging in age from a few weeks to early teens, came to Monarch Children's Justice & Advocacy Center to find help in ending the abuse and getting the services they need to heal emotionally and physically.

A recent study by the Department of Justice looked at the link between juvenile and adult criminal behavior and child abuse and found that, for victims of child sexual abuse, the sexual nature of the abuse was not the significant factor in whether the child participated in criminal behaviors later in life, but rather it was the response that child received when they disclosed the abuse that was the significant factor.  MCJAC is changing in significant and positive ways the response children receive when they disclose child sexual abuse.