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.
