Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Sexual abuse.

What is sexual abuse?


At the extreme end of the spectrum, sexual abuse includes sexual intercourse or its deviations. Yet all offences that involve sexually touching a child, as well as non-touching offenses and sexual exploitation, are just as harmful and devastating to a child’s well-being.
Touching sexual offenses include:
  • Fondling;
  • Making a child touch an adult’s sexual organs; and
  • Penetrating a child’s vagina or anus no matter how slight with a penis or any object that doesn’t have a valid medical purpose.
Non-touching sexual offenses include:
  • Engaging in indecent exposure or exhibitionism;
  • Exposing children to pornographic material;
  • Deliberately exposing a child to the act of sexual intercourse; and
  • Masturbating in front of a child.
Sexual exploitation can include:
  • Engaging a child or soliciting a child for the purposes of prostitution; and
  • Using a child to film, photograph or model pornography.
These definitions are broad. In most states, the legal definition of child molestation is an act of a person—adult or child—who forces, coerces or threatens a child to have any form of sexual contact or to engage in any type of sexual activity at the perpetrator’s direction.

What should you look into if you suspect your child is being sexually abused?

Children who are sexually abused may exhibit behavioral changes, based on their age.


Children up to age 3 may exhibit:
  • Fear or excessive crying
  • Vomiting
  • Feeding problems
  • Bowel problems
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Failure to thrive
Children ages 2 to 9 may exhibit:
  • Fear of particular people, places or activities
  • Regression to earlier behaviors such as bed wetting or stranger anxiety
  • Victimization of others
  • Excessive masturbation
  • Feelings of shame or guilt
  • Nightmares or sleep disturbances
  • Withdrawal from family or friends
  • Fear of attack recurring
  • Eating disturbances
Symptoms of sexual abuse in older children and adolescents include:
  • Depression
  • Nightmares or sleep disturbances
  • Poor school performance
  • Promiscuity
  • Substance abuse
  • Aggression
  • Running away from home
  • Fear of attack recurring
  • Eating disturbances
  • Early pregnancy or marriage
  • Suicidal gestures
  • Anger about being forced into situation beyond one’s control
  • Pseudo-mature behaviors
[All information above is from here & here. Feel free to go and read more about it.]

Sexual abuse is usually performed on the child by it's parents, close family members, teacher, older siblings, babysitter. Scary, right? But sadly, it's true.
.


My advice to anyone who has suffered from this is to immediately speak to your parents (I know how hard it is, I personally had to text my mum as I couldn't possibly say it to her face!) and get professional help (speak to a therapist). And always keep in mind that this is NOT your fault. You're beautiful, and a wonderful person. Who did that to you is the one to fully blame.


Stay strong,
You''re beautiful.

3 comments:

  1. My gosh such a personal post! I don't know you but I am so proud of you how you have turned your life around. There are some nasty people out there, that you need to be strong in this life. You are so young but have such a clever head on your shoulders - I pray you always stay strong and hope your life gets better every day. Take Care.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing your research to us, Paris. Lots of victims are still afraid to speak up, even to their parents. Well, it can be a problem when their parent is the abuser, right? I’m sure they’ll be encouraged to seek help after reading the inspiring posts from your blog. Hope you continue to inspire and motivate others to step up and stop all kinds of abuse. :)

    Vesta Duvall @ The Zalkin Law Firm, P.C.

    ReplyDelete