Child Sexual Assault and resulting Consequences

Sexual assault of a child is a lot more common than society wants to believe. One in three girls and one and six boys will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18 (1). The ages where a child is most vulnerable to sexual assault is between seven and thirteen (2), of those three out of four are victimized by someone they know/knew. Sexual assault of children is a horrible trend and most offenders never see the inside of a jail cell.

I tell you all this to open your eyes to another trend that is taking place, juvenile crime. We live in a world that thinks it is better to lock people up and throw away the key. The issue that I have with this is that we send kids to juvenile detention centers for petty crimes and when they get out we look down on them. What never gets looked at is why they turned to crime or substance abuse. The numbers of juveniles that have been sexually assaulted who never get help and turn to crime or drug abuse is astonishing. If someone had just cared enough to step up and protect the child their lives would be extremely different.

We take children, throw them in juvenile detention centers, where they will probably be sexually assaulted inside the center, and expect some magical altering power to show them the “right” way. Only we are putting them in a place where they are being treated like animals and not kids. We are putting them in a place with people who couldn’t care less if they succeed or fail. We live in a world where we have judges in our country basically selling kids to the JDC and yet we can’t figure out why they don’t change? Come on!

What’s happening is the blind eye. We just turn our heads if it’s not our family members and say the extremely dumb phrase “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”. I can promise most of those saying this are unaware that the person who assaulted the child, who is now in JDC, never saw justice. The courts either let them off, or worse, didn’t even convict them. Are you aware that you get more time for selling pot then you do for taking the innocence of a child? It’s true. Most pedophiles and predators never get convicted for one dumb reason or another and those who are convicted rarely see the inside of a prison cell. They get to go on living their lives while this child feels worthless, and distrust adults which sadly will also include law enforcement.

What happens after the child processes out of JDC? Well, if they never received help they continue to go down this criminal and drug addicted path. As an adult these crimes send them to prison, where they are thrown into an environment that is like stepping into the 1950’s. Again, the public looks down on them and the prisons treat them like rodents. They are no longer human beings but “inmates”. They are supervised by CO’s who may or may not be nice individuals. This may not matter to you because again, they did the crime, but it should matter. It’s a cycle. It’s a cycle that started because adults failed them and for the majority that never get treatment, are still in the age mindset from when they were assaulted. Somehow we have gone from rehabilitating people to just showing them a way to be a better criminal. Even if they are paroled, society looks down on them as nothing more than “felons” and not humans. We are aiding in this cycle by turning a blind eye. We need a better sentencing reform for pedophiles and predators and more resources for children of sexual assault. We have to stop looking at people committing crimes as scum of the earth and start looking at why they turned to this. We have to wake up. We have to help our children and we have to bring awareness about sexual assault and what really goes on in JDC.

So what can you do to help? If you see a child being abused in any way, SAY SOMETHING! Speak up because that child can not. If you find out that neighbor you live next to is a felon but they are trying to better themselves and provide a better life for their families, encourage them and for God’s sake, look at them like the person they are and not the status that is attached to them. When you see a child trying to mow lawns to keep from going to crime or joining a gang, let them mow your yard! Heck, make them business cards and let’s set them up to succeed not to fail! Reach out to your local agencies set up to help juveniles in detention centers but also those there to help the adults in prison too. One organization I highly recommend contributing to is InsideOut Writers. They are helping by teaching them to channel their anger, hurt and traumas into writing instead of crime. They are aiding after their release to make sure these kids graduate and go on to receive a higher education so that they can be the future. Reach out and help adults who are being paroled too. Donate to your local anti-recidivism coalitions who are helping parolees stop the cycle of crime.

It’s not enough just to know these things are happening we have to step up and take a stand. We can’t just help future kids/adults of sexual assault; we must help the ones still struggling in the now. The only way we can end this is to face it head on and demand pedophiles be prosecuted and survivors be given free treatment.

References (1) https://www.parentsformeganslaw.org/public/statistics_childSexualAbuse.html

(2)http://victimsofcrime.org/media/reporting-on-child-sexual-abuse/child-sexual-abuse-statistics