Page 44 - Provoke Magazine Vol7

Fact #2 During a 1 year period in the U.S. 16% of our children 14-17 years of age have been sexually victimized. Population cen- suses show there are 24 million children be- tween the ages of 12-17 approximately 16% of that 24 million have been sexually abused. These numbers are staggering. What’s even more disturbing is the only way that we can come up with these stats is by reporting the abuse. So this information only represents 5% of the abuse that actually happens.
Fact #3 Over the course of their short life- time 28% of youths in America have been sexually abused in some form or fashion. That is 6,720,000 kids between the ages of 14 and 17 that have been victimized at some point in their lives and reported the abuse.
Fact #4 75% of adolescents that have been sexually abused were assaulted by some- one they know and trusted. These are the worst of the worst when it comes to pred- ators. These are the people that every- one knows and create the image of trust and loyalty. Predator mode of operation is to gain the trust of not only the victim but those surrounding the victim. Concealment is essential to the way they hunt. They op- erate under the facade of public image like coaches, teachers, pastors, advocates and family members. This enables them to be close to the victim while setting the family at ease and creates a level of trust that in- stills doubt and disbelief when the child tells mom or dad about what’s going on. Nobody can be trusted and because anyone can be an abuser you must never ever assume the accusations to be false. You have to always believe the child when they disclose abuse. Remember it is not your job to determine if the child is lying. Determining fact from fic- tion is the duty of investigators and a jury if it goes that far. Giving a victim the slightest notion that you don’t believe them can be just as damaging as the act of a use itself. By making the child feel as though they’re not believed allows the abuser to gain control and continue his reign of terror upon his vic- tim and remain undetected through silence.
Murder of Innocence
The War Against Our Children
-Michael Wall
Our children are at war fighting battles that they should never have to know about. Every single minute of every single day kids are being violated in the most grotesque way you can imagine. These battles are not fought on a battlefield, but in their minds and on their bodies. Right now as you’re reading this article there is a child somewhere that is being beaten, starved, raped, molested and tortured. While this is happening there is someone standing by allowing this to continue because of their choice to maintain silence.
You see it on a daily basis. You see the headlines, you hear the news stations. “Man arrested on sexual abuse charges”, “Mother and boyfriend charged in child’s death.” The fact that this actually happens is not a se- cret. It’s in your face daily and yet we still stand back and choose to do nothing. We see these stories and think “Wow that is so sad. I’m so glad that this would never happen in my family”, yet it could indeed actually be happening right under your own roof.
When it does happen would you stand straight up and say NO! You will pay for what you have done to my child!! Or will you choose to not believe that your significant other is not capable of committing such a dastardly act? Would you believe that your pastor has touched your child, or would you say he is a good man of the cloth and does far too much for our community to do something like that?
Allow me to share some very disturbing facts with you.
Fact #1 and I want you to keep this in your head as you continue reading this article. There is a child somewhere being abused. Every two minutes a child is molested. Do the math and you will see that is about 250,000 children per year. This statistic is based off of reported cases. This is a number calculated by the number of reports made and convictions handed down. 95% of child sexual assaults go unreported. That means that the actual number of kids being mo- lested is 95% higher than that 250,000. That means that, though there is no possible way to get an accurate number it could actually be 500,000-1,000,000 kids a year are sexu- ally abused.
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