Defining Child Sexual Abuse: continued

This week, I'm short on time, and will be away from the computer for much of it. Rather than post the next discussion of child molester backgrounds, I decided to share with you a snippet from a great brochure created by the Center for Behavioral Intervention(CBI) entitled, "Protecting Your Children: Advice From Child Molesters". This particular brochure was created by a group of child molesters in treatment at the CBI, under the supervision of Cory Jewell-Jensen.

The following segment fits in well with the information I posted last week:

"Child molestation usually begins with a sex offender gaining a child's trust and friendship. The offender then begins "testing" the child's ability to protect themselves by telling sexual jokes, engaging in horseplay, back rubs, kissing or sexual games. If the child appears comfortable with or curious about this type of behavior, (and most healthy, normal children are) the offender will slowly increase the amount and type of touching to include more direct sexual touching. Child sexual abuse can include exposing, fondling, masturbation, oral sex, intercourse, and pornography. Many children do not understand that what is happening is sexual or wrong. Most offenders know that if they physically harm a child while molesting them, the child is more likely to tell. They are also cleaver enough to make the child feel as if they are equally responsible for the contact. Children become trapped and are unable to tell anyone what is happening.

Research has demonstrated that most of our school based child abuse prevention programs do not prevent children from being abused and have little impact on the reporting. The reason for the lack of impact on abuse is that children are not in a good position to protect themselves from offenders, especially is the offender is a parent or caretaker. Given the way child molesters operate, it is imperative that adults, not children become educated about child abuse, supervise their children more closely and take action if they suspect someone of abusing a child. Parents, schools, churches and community groups must also work together to develop prevention programs that incorporate parent training into prevention programs and encourage reporting."

That last paragraph is the very reason I have not only become involved in my community, but have chosen to share as much of the information here on my blog. While it isn't fun to write or read, it is the reality in so many lives. Knowledge is power. Let's spread the word.

Next week, we'll begin looking at the child molesters themselves.