The town is small and quaint with a strong downtown core and idyllic look and feel. However, child sexual abuse happens here as it does everywhere. When a local art therapist brought Little Warriors, a child sexual abuse prevention and advocacy group to town, they needed two full workshops to train interested professionals in child sexual abuse prevention techniques.
Abusers are Not Strangers
According to Darkness to Light, an advocacy group, 95% of child sexual abuse occurs between the child and someone the child knows but only 30% of parents ever talk about child sexual abuse with their children, and then usually fail to mention that the abuser may be family or a friend. Often potential abusers will get to know the family and the child and establish trust before abuse starts, according to Little Warriors.
Healing Abuse Through Exposure
Traditionally, public health prevention measures start by routing out the noxious agent and removing it or immobilizing it. When the noxious agent is contaminated drinking water, for example, the water is purified and the noxious agent removed. When the agent is child sexual abuse, exposure immobilizes it.
Talk Openly About Abuse
Parents can talk openly to adults involved with their children about their awareness of child sexual abuse. If a child is going to be left alone with an adult, parents should slip it into the conversation that they talk openly with their child about sexual abuse. According to TAALK and Little Warriors, most children do not tell about their abuse, even when asked. Darkness to Light notes that one half of one percent (½%) of children make up stories about abuse.
Teach Children to Respect Their Bodies
The second step in traditional public health prevention is to strengthen the resistance of the host. When the host is a child, and the noxious agent a potential child molester, parents can teach children about appropriate touching, respect for their bodies, and how to talk to adults about their needs. This strengthens the resistance of the host. Child abuse cannot thrive under exposure to light. It can only thrive in secrecy.
Supervise Children Well
The last step reduces transmission of the noxious agent to the host. Traditionally, this means things like mosquito netting to reduce transmission of malaria. When preventing child abuse, reducing transmission means making certain that the child is well supervised at all times. Ensure that all organizations in the community have a well thought out plan for one-to-one contact with adults.
Child Advocacy
Educating parents, care givers and all adults in contact with children about what to ask children, about limiting time with one-to-one contact between adults and children, and about being very explicit and direct with adults and children about child sexual abuse can greatly decrease its occurrence, according to Darkness to Light.
References
Little Warriors. Statistics and Resources. Retrieved on September 25, 2009.
TAALK. Programs Education TAALK Prevention. Retrieved on September 27, 2009.
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