In her sentencing remarks to Larry Nassar, Judge Aquilina quoted statistics about child sexual assault from US Dept of Justice.
Before their 18th birthday–
- 1 in 10 kids in the USA will be sexually assaulted
- 1 in 7 girls will be sexually assaulted
- 1 in 25 boys will be sexually assaulted
There is no reason to think that the rate of child sexual assault is any lower in other countries.
Sexual assault of children was probably pretty frequent in the Greco-Roman culture when the New Testament was written. Unwanted infants (especially girls) were left on rubbish dumps. Slave traders would go to the rubbish dumps, pick up the abandoned infants and raise them to whatever age they were marketable as child-slaves. Under Greco-Roman law, there was no legal penalty that could be imposed on a slave owner who killed his slave. So we can imagine how it was easy for slave owners to sexually abuse their slaves.
Some police think that the availability of porn on the internet has led to a lot more sexual assault of children.
And Pastor Jimmy Hinton believes that 40% of people in the pews nowadays have suffered sexual abuse – he cites many research studies and observations from church leaders to back up his opinion.
If you want to do something about the pornification of children’s bodies. I encourage you to join the following organizations:
- Collective Shout
- eChildhood (formerly called Porn Harms Kids)
***
Further reading
Child Safety Training — by Ps Jimmy Hinton, the son of a pedophile pastor
Sleeping with the enemy… and being ‘one flesh’ with an abuser who sexually assaults children
A Grand Deception: The Successful Response Of Sex Offenders (by Boz Tchividjian)
Tear Down This Wall of Silence [Affiliate link] by Dale Ingraham, with Rebecca Davis
A Cry For Justice 
I cannot recall the stats, but my understanding is that there is a high chance that the victim knows their abuser. And that abuser may tend to be in a position of power and / or authority, which is how they gained access to victims in the first place.
I read this while watching a doc about Penn State and their sexual abuse scandal, where the victims knew their abuser. But I apologize for not remembering the exact number.
I recall Jimmy writing about those shockingly high stats. He went around the country and talked to so many people in churches.
Bear in mind that many of those persons may not have ever shared their stories until Jimmy visited their church and gave them an opportunity.
One of the reasons (I wonder) why we are so blown away and in denial about these high stats, is we don’t factor in how under reported this abuse tends to be.
This is where the “relationship” factor between abuser and abused plays into the under reporting, I wonder? If this is your pastor, coach, family member or family friend doing this to you—-how much more difficult can it be to go to the police and start an official investigation?
The victim is forced to consider (or be told by the abuser) if they are being “selfish” to report the abuse. He or she has to think of how their family, church family or community will be affected if they say something.
One of Nassar’s victims was the daughter of his neighbor. Both families were very close for many years. Her testimony in court about how it tore about her family will stay with me forever.
When she first spoke out, she wasn’t believed, but eventually her family realized she was telling the truth.
So my heart is with these precious people, being torn up about what to do and what not to do.
Thanks, Helovesme.
If you want to put a link to the testimony of that Nassar survivor here, feel free. 🙂
So here is her testimony, plus the testimonies of other young women who gave victim impact statements. You have to scroll down to Kyle’s name to find her.
Trigger warning is advised before watching it, please.
Hear Larry Nassar’s victims in their own (powerful and brave) words [Internet Archive link]
The father suicided from the guilt he felt in having forced his daughter to apologize to her predator / abuser. It’s really an excellent example (not that anyone wants to become an ‘example’) as to what happens when the smooth-talking abusers are involved in a so-called ‘confrontation.’ It is worthless, harmful, and dangerous to have a victim face her abuser, especially a child victim. What did the parents expect? That their neighbor and family friend was going to confess to his felonious crime(s)??? People are naive and the victims suffer even more for that.
It’s like the ‘stranger rapist’ is something like 2 or 3 percent of all rapes committed. I don’t know the stats about child molester’s predation but I would suspect that the predator is known to the child in something over 90 percent of the time.
I think Christian homes have this ‘obedience and respect’ element where children are taught to obey parents, coaches, teachers, doctors, etc. and to respect their elders and it makes for prime pickings of prey.
HeLovesMe makes a good point about the victim’s considerations about whether or not it is ‘selfish’ to report. This is not limited to child victims, but rather how many women are admonished as to how they are potentially harming their wife-beater’s career / life / reputation by daring to let the secret (DV / SA) out??? I think that ‘selfish’ accusation is from the devil himself.
(Heavy airbrushing…)
In a partial answer to Helovesme on under-reporting…I did not understand I was being sexually abused by an older sibling. No one had taught me the words. There was no discussion on what was “not okay”. And I was coerced into secrecy.
Yet many of the “symptoms” were there….nightmares, thumb-sucking, food / digestion issues…
There are examples I could add with respect to listening to victims’ stories and the pornography industry, but they may, at one level, be too identifying. They are not from my personal life….
One day (?) I won’t feel the need to airbrush…..
Thank you for writing this. It’s difficult to wrap our minds around those numbers. And the impact abuse has on each and every one of the victims…we need to do better at defending children.