essay about sexual abuse

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Sexual Abuse, Essay Example

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Introduction

• Vulnerability of children predisposes many to sexual abuse
• Abuse can be physical or psychological
• Effects of physical abuse include isolation and depression
• It can also lead to inability to engage in normal sexual behavior
• Post traumatic stress disorder is a common psychological disorder among the victims
• Sexually abused children more likely to develop deviant and promiscuous behavior
• Some engage in promiscuous behavior leading to sexually leading to sexually transmitted disease
• Others are unable to form lasting relationships
• Preventive measures should be put in place to prevent abuse
• Treatment is not a guaranteed remedy for the victims
• Prevention is the best remedy

The vulnerability of children makes them the most common targets of sexual abusers. In the US, it has become a significant issue regarding public health. Child sex abuse is categorized as abuse of an individual below the age of 18. The effects can be classified as physical and psychological and occur immediately and also later in life. Changes in personality character in children are the main recognition features of abuse. Having an appreciation of the long term effects of sexual abuse is very important when ones to understand personality characters of the victims who go through the experience. For effective management of victims of sexual abuse, it is imperative that we recognize the cause of the observed disorder and determine the Adversity to the child.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among children who have been victims of sexual abuse as outlined by Kinnear (p 18). This results due the nature of the abuse. The violence that is involved during the act in addition to the pain causes is bound to have delayed reaction on the child. If the abuser is known to the child, the extent of stress is more due to frequent exposure. The signs are normally related with association of the circumstances preceding and during the abuse with any other circumstance the child is presented with. As a result, the child will avoid such situation and may appear withdrawn. Reports have shown that sexually abused children develop anxiety and deviant sexual behaviors including promiscuity.

Mental health of an abused child is also affected adversely. Owing to the heinous nature of the offense, the child is bound to become isolated and depressed. Over time, the child becomes withdrawn from society. Kinnear (19) postulated that the stigma attached to abuse of child also fosters the guilty feeling. As a result, the child enters adulthood without having experienced the challenges which normally stimulate response behavior for survival as an adult.

Physically, some victims are rendered unable to engage in normal sexual practices owing to the physical trauma to the affected organs. The abuser is obviously in a hurry to avoid being caught. The element of struggle implies that injury is bound to occur. As result, the ability to function as normal adult and fulfill their reproductive duties is greatly hampered even in the absence of psychological tendencies. The fear involved in correlating sexual activity wit abuse becomes a hindering factor hence making the individuals unable to form lasting relationships.

Sexual abuse is bound to lead to sexually transmitted diseases to the child. Most abusers are adults who have previously engaged in sexual activities and could thus be carriers of such diseases. Transmission rates are also higher owing to the injury sustained. As observed from most instances, such treatment for such disease is hampered by the diagnostic challenges since the victim may hide the fact they were abused Finkelman (p 41). The shame and trauma involved may prevent the child from opening up to responsible adults.

According to Kinnear (18), inclination to crime has been observed to occur in children who have been sexually abused. Their appreciation of danger is compromised due to loss of self-esteem thus propagating tendencies of disruptive behavior and conduct. Besides, the abused child is bound to feel dejected. This feeling propels most abused children to risk taking behavior. The withdrawal period also takes away valuable time for personal development and the individual may lack a source of income. Substance abuse is also rife among individuals who have been abused. This originates from the search of a coping mechanism.

In conclusion therefore, it is imperative that society protects children from abuse of any form. Sexual abuse has adverse effects running into adult life. Treatment and care of victims is not a guaranteed remedy for the victims. As a result, it is better prevention than care.

Works Cited

Finkelman, Byrgen “Child Abuse: Short- And Long-Term Effects” USA: Taylor & Francis, 1995p

Kinnear, Karen L. ‘Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Reference Handbook”, California: ABC-  CLIO, 2007

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Report: Solutions To Stop Sexual Violence Against Children

Susan Brink

Daniela Ligiero is CEO of Together for Girls, an organization that works to prevent violence against children. She was sexually abused as a child but kept silent until a made-for-TV movie gave her the courage to speak out. Catie Dull/NPR hide caption

Daniela Ligiero is CEO of Together for Girls, an organization that works to prevent violence against children. She was sexually abused as a child but kept silent until a made-for-TV movie gave her the courage to speak out.

Sexual violence against children happens everywhere: in wealthy enclaves, in slums, in suburbs, in rural villages.

Invariably, it happens in secret: in the privacy of family homes, in dark corners of schools and churches, and in murky shadows at neighborhood, community, sporting and scouting events.

It happens often, and periodically groups put out reports to call attention to the issue. "That's usually where the story stops," says Daniela Ligiero, CEO and executive director of Together for Girls , an organization that works to prevent violence against children. "But there's a lot to be done to prevent it. We want to showcase solutions."

Together for Girls, in partnership with the Oak Foundation and the Equality Institute, organizations with similar goals of preventing violence against children, examined scientific studies and sought expert opinion to compile a review of evidence. Their report, "What Works to Prevent Sexual Violence Against Children," was released Nov. 19.

It presents a much-needed guide for policymakers around the world, says Regan Hofmann , acting director of the U.S. Liaison Office, UNAIDS. "The global community has been hungry for a resource clearly outlining cost-effective, evidence-based solutions to prevent sexual violence against children and adolescents," she says.

Beyond 'Good' Vs. 'Bad' Touch: 4 Lessons To Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

We spoke with Ligiero about the report. Research details included from the report are bracketed.

I understand that it was a personal epiphany that led you to your life's work to prevent childhood sexual abuse. Tell me about that.

I started being sexually abused at the age of 6 by a close family friend. For many years I lived in silence. I was terrified. I was living in Paraguay at the time. Without getting into detail, it was genital touching, rape — everything. It didn't start off being violent and gruesome, but slowly it escalated. In my own way, I was trying to let my parents know that I didn't want to be alone with this man. I wasn't heard. The abuse ended after three or four years when we moved to the United States.

By 16, I was suicidal, depressed, starting to experiment with drugs and alcohol. I lived in silence. Then I saw a made-for-TV movie. I don't even remember the name of it. I'm 44 now, but that movie opened up this whole journey. It was about a girl, an adolescent, who was sexually abused by her dad. Eventually, people discovered the abuse, and she was able to access support. For the first time I felt like I wasn't alone. It helped me have the courage to speak about it. And finally, I got help and support.

What you experienced was clearly sexual abuse. Within this report, how do you define sexual abuse of children?

We were trying to have a big umbrella. Sexual violence consists of a range of sexual acts against a child, including but not limited to incest, rape, sexual violence in the context of dating and intimate relationships, sexual exploitation and online sexual abuse.

For some kinds of abuse — incest and rape, for example — the definition is pretty clear. But there can be differences of opinion among people who live in cultures where very young girls become brides about whether child marriage is sexual abuse. In most of those cultures, it's very young girls marrying older men. [Around 15 million girls are married before the age of 18. Some countries are moving to strengthen laws to protect young girls from forced marriage. Malawi, for example, in 2015 increased the minimum age of marriage to 18.]

How common is it for children around the world to experience sexual abuse?

Some form of sexual abuse — including inappropriate touching, incest, child pornography and rape — happens each year to 120 million girls age 18 and younger around the world, or 1 in 10. [That's according to a 2014 UNICEF report, "Hidden in Plain Sight." ] Global estimates for sexually abused boys are not available because few countries collect that data. But a 2013 analysis in the International Journal of Public Health looked at the problem in 24 high- and middle-income countries and found that from 8 percent to 31 percent of girls under 18 in those 24 countries were victims of sexual abuse, as were from 3 percent to 17 percent of boys.]

Are there areas of the world where sexual abuse of children is especially prevalent?

It's bad everywhere, and there are millions of children affected. In areas of conflict, war and poverty, the prevalence is higher. Childhood sexual violence is the single largest silent pandemic of our time. It needs to be addressed everywhere. Several of our partners contributed to the Economist Intelligence Unit's report "Out of the Shadows: Shining Light on the Response to Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation." [The Economist Intelligence Unit is an arm of the Economist media group that includes The Economist magazine; it provides research and analysis that it believes to be of interest to businesses, the financial sector and governments. Its report highlights steps that 60 countries are taking to stop child sexual abuse.]

Can you give me some specific examples of interventions that work?

A couple of interventions used in schools are effective. These are age-appropriate approaches where you work with students, focusing on facts about sexual abuse and telling them what to do if they feel uncomfortable. Some interventions focus on kids as bystanders and suggest what they can do if they see something inappropriate. Programs teach younger kids basics like, for example, the difference between safe touching and unsafe touching. [The report notes that programs might teach that an acceptable touch is a hug or kiss from moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas, if the child wants them. But that an unacceptable touch is a touch underneath clothing or a touch anywhere that makes the child feel uncomfortable or scared.]

For older kids, a program called "Safe Date" is designed to prevent dating violence. It teaches kids about healthy relationships and gets kids talking to each other, practicing conversations about sex and helping girls feel empowered.

Parenting programs can be effective. They teach mothers and fathers how to have conversations with their kids. They encourage parents to believe their children when they express concerns about, for example, being alone with someone.

In the community, abuse would go down if all youth-serving groups, such as schools, YMCAs, sports and scouting organizations, had mandatory background checks for staffers. Those groups also should have mechanisms in place for staffers or kids to report abuse. Most organizations that work with children don't have these safeguards in place. Just think about [the Olympic women's gymnastics team doctor] Larry Nassar . He was able to abuse athletes for more than 30 years. [Nassar was convicted of sexually abusing more than 250 girls, most of them on the U.S. women's gymnastic team.]

Are there interventions intended to reduce child sexual abuse that backfire and do more harm than good?

We know that laws that require sex offenders to register do not work for juveniles. Those laws, when directed at boys under the age of 18, don't deter future abuse. Instead, they increase the incidence of suicide among the juveniles who must register. For those young perpetrators, individual and group treatment can be effective deterrents, studies have shown

Back to your personal story. Would any of the interventions you've studied have helped you when you were being abused as a little girl?

If someone in my school had talked about this, I would have felt less alone. If my parents had been taught to listen to their children's fears, it would have helped. I was on sports teams and in Girl Scouts, and people talked about avoiding strangers. But no one talked about what to do if someone close to you was doing this. That would have helped.

We need to get uncomfortable and have some of these conversations with children.

Susan Brink is a freelance writer who covers health and medicine. She is the author of The Fourth Trimester and co-author of A Change of Heart.

Correction Nov. 20, 2019

A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Larry Nassar as an orthopedic surgeon. Nassar is an osteopathic physician.

• sexual violence against adolescents
• sexual violence against children

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Essay on Sexual Harassment

500 words essay on sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment refers to any form of unwelcome sexual behaviour which is offensive, humiliating and intimidating. Further, it is against the law to sexually harass anyone. Over the years, sexual harassment has taken a lot of time to be recognized as a real issue. Nonetheless, it is a start that can protect people from this harassment. The essay on sexual harassment will take you through the details.

Sexual Harassment and Its Impacts

Sexual harassment comes in many forms and not just a single one. It includes when someone tries to touch, grab or make other physical contacts with you without your consent. Further, it also includes passing comments which have a sexual meaning.

After that, it is also when someone asks you for sexual favours. Leering and staring continuously also counts as one. You are being sexually harassed when the perpetrator displays rude and offensive material so that others can see it.

Another form is making sexual gestures towards you and cracking sexual jokes or comments towards you. It is also not acceptable for someone to question you about your sexual life or insult you with sexual comments.

Further, making an obscene phone call or indecently exposing oneself also counts as sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can impact a person severely. It may stress out the victim and they may suffer from anxiety or depression.

Moreover, it can also cause them to withdraw from social situations. After that, the victim also starts to lose confidence and self-esteem. There may also be physical symptoms like headaches, sleep problems and being not able to concentrate or be productive.

What Can We Do

No one in this world deserves to go through sexual harassment, whether man or woman. We all have the right to live freely without being harassed, bullied or discriminated against. It is the reason why sexual harassment is illegal.

To begin with, the person may try talking to the offender and convey their message regarding their unwanted behaviour. Further, it is also essential to stay informed about this issue. Make sure to learn about the policies and procedures regarding sexual harassment in your workplace, school or university.

Further, try to document everything to help you remember the name of the offenders and the incidents. Similarly, make sure to save any evidence you get which will help with your complaint. For instance, keeping the text messages, emails, photos or more.

Most importantly, always try to get external information and advice from people who will help you if you decide to file a lawsuit. Likewise, never deal with it on your own and share it with someone you trust to lighten your load.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Sexual Harassment

To conclude, sexual harassment is a very real issue that went unnoticed for a long period of time, but not anymore. It is essential for all of us to take measures to prevent it from happening as it damages the life of the victim severely. Thus, make sure you help out those who are suffering from sexual harassment and make the perpetrator accountable.

FAQ of Essay on Sexual Harassment

Question 1: What are the effects of sexual harassment?

Answer 1: Sexual harassment has major effects on the victim like suffering from significant psychological effects which include anxiety, depression , headaches, sleep disorders, lowered self-esteem, sexual dysfunction and more.

Question 2: How do you tell if someone is sexually harassing you?

Answer 2: It is essential to notice the signs if you feel someone is sexually harassing you. The most important sign is if you feel uncomfortable and experience any unwanted physical contact. If your ‘no’ does not have an impact and you’re being subjected to sexual jokes, you are being sexually harassed.

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Psychobiological Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Current Knowledge and Clinical Implications

Luisa lo iacono.

1 Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

2 IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy

Cristina Trentini

Valeria carola.

A large body of research has documented the long-term harms of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) on an individual’s emotional-adaptive function and mental health. Recent studies have also provided evidence of the biological impact of CSA, implicating specific alterations in many systems, including the endocrine and immune systems, and in DNA and chromatin, in the pathogenesis of medical disorders. Although the effects of CSA are often examined with regard to the general impact of early-life traumatic experiences, the study of CSA per sè, as a trigger of specific pathogenic pathways, would be more appropriate to understand their long-term implications and develop tailored diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Based on these premises, this narrative minireview summarizes the research on the short-term and long-term sequelae of CSA, focusing on dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the effects on the immune system, and the changes to DNA through altered methylation. Also, we discuss the literature that examines dysfunctional DNA telomere erosion and oxidative stress markers as a sign of CSA. Finally, recent evidence of the intergenerational transmission of the effects of CSA is reported. The impact of CSA on brain connectivity and functions is out of the scope of this review, thus brain imaging studies are not included. The results of this minireview are discussed, considering their implications for prevention and clinical practice.

Introduction

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a severe public health concern, affecting roughly 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys worldwide ( Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021 ).

As with other forms of abuse, CSA is characterized by the complex manipulation and coercion of the perpetrator and the unbalanced and power-based relationship that is established by leveraging and exploiting vulnerability.

Childhood sexual abuse includes sexually connotated physical contact or non-contact activities. The former includes intercourse, attempted intercourse, or oral-genital contact with the penis, fingers, or any object; masturbation; and fondling the genitals or other erogenous areas through the clothing or directly. The latter entails forcing a child to participate in adult sexual pleasure (such as sexual harassment and prostitution) or exposing a child to adult sexual activities, such as pornography, voyeurism, and exhibitionism ( Putnam, 2003 ; Slep et al., 2015 ).

Childhood sexual abuse alters the normal developmental trajectories that are necessary for healthy socioemotional function ( Langevin et al., 2016 ; Clayton et al., 2018 ), increasing the likelihood of a child experiencing sociorelational difficulties, cognitive dysfunction, depression, anxiety, internalization and externalization of problems, sexualized behaviors, and post-traumatic symptoms ( Saywitz et al., 2000 ). These negative outcomes are exacerbated by the cumulative impact of several types of victimization, to which the child is commonly exposed in his or her family ( Putnam et al., 2013 ; Ford and Delker, 2018 ; Goodman et al., 2020 ).

A large body of research has documented that the negative effects of CSA can persist until adulthood. Associations between CSA and a wide range of psychiatric outcomes, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, conversion disorder, borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, anxiety, and depression, have been described ( Hailes et al., 2019 ). Further, CSA has been linked to a greater risk for substance abuse ( Halpern et al., 2018 ), suicidal ideation and suicide-related behavior ( Afifi et al., 2014 ; Devries et al., 2014 ), and adult victimization ( Aakvaag et al., 2017 ).

Notably, as in other forms of childhood maltreatment, children who are exposed to SA are likely to become abusive parents ( Assink et al., 2018 ), supporting the existence of intergenerational transmission of abuse. Specifically, this phenomenon appears to be mediated by the construction of disorganized attachment in the child ( Madigan et al., 2006 ; Cyr et al., 2010 ).

Beyond being at high risk for lifelong mental disturbances, individuals with CSA are also vulnerable to disruptions in physical health. These individuals often develop a wide variety of symptoms that are often medically unexplained, including chronic pain; sleep problems; adult-onset arthritis; fibromyalgia; long-term fatigue; diabetes; and circulatory, digestive, respiratory, musculoskeletal, reproductive, and neurological problems ( Sigurdardottir and Halldorsdottir, 2018 ).

Several changes in physiological functions have been described as a consequence of CSA. Considering that such effects might be particularly relevant because they are involved in the modulation of CSA-induced psychological and physical disturbances, this minireview will summarize research on the short-term and long-term sequelae of CSA, focusing on the dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the effects on the immune system, and the changes to DNA through altered methylation. Also, the literature on dysfunctional cellular processes, such as DNA telomere erosion and oxidative stress markers as a sign of CSA, will be presented. We will conclude with recent evidence on the pathways through which CSA might be transmitted to offspring.

Methodology

We performed a literature search of studies on the effects of CSA within the following topics: biological impact of CSA; effects of CSA on the HPA axis, immune system, DNA methylation, and cellular processes in adults; and transgenerational inheritance of the impacts of CSA. The impact of CSA on brain connectivity and functions is out of the scope of this review, thus brain imaging studies are not included. The search was conducted primarily using PubMed Advanced Search Builder, as in the following example: “Child sexual abuse” AND (“HPA” OR “psychological outcomes” OR “inflammation” OR “telomere” OR “DNA methylation”) NOT (“Neglect” OR “Childhood Maltreatment”). Other keywords and mesh words included cortisol, cortisol awakening response, immune activity, inflammatory markers, peripheral biomarkers, blood biomarkers, epigenetics, genetics, telomere length, DNA, RNA, childhood, adolescence, rape, sexual violence, sexual victimization, and intergenerational transmission of trauma. Supplementary articles were included through performing a manual search, analyzing the references of the most relevant articles, and scanning all papers from meta-analyses and reviews. All selected papers were written in English, and most were published between 2015 and 2021.

The Sequelae of Sexual Abuse in Children

The literature on the immediate biological effects of CSA on children is limited ( Table 1 ). These studies usually aim to understand the acute response and the resulting compensatory physiological changes, which, by interacting with an individual’s genetic makeup, form the basis of long-term dysfunctions.

Short-term biological consequences of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) exposure.

HPA, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; IL-6, Interleukin 6; ACE, adverse childhood experiences; mtDNA, mitochondrial DNA.

Specifically, studies in child and adolescent victims of sexual abuse focus primarily on the immediate impact on the HPA axis and immune system, through the analysis of blood cortisol and cytokines levels, respectively.

A large body of research has assessed the impact of CSA on cellular processes, assaying, for instance, the length of DNA telomeres as a measure of cellular aging and determining the levels of oxidative stress due to the cortisol response. Such facets are generally evaluated using an oxidant stress index (OSI), defined by combining measures of various blood parameters that are involved in antioxidation (such as levels of superoxide dismutase) and oxidation processes (including ROS and DNA damage). Few studies, as reported here, have assessed these variables at a young age.

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal and Immune System Dysfunction in Child Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Excessive or prolonged stress dysregulates the HPA axis. Şimşek et al. (2016) investigated whether morning serum cortisol levels (obtained between 10:00 and 12:00 AM) differ between children who developed PTSD or not following sexual abuse. Notably, cortisol levels were lower in children who reported PTSD and who were victims of multiple assaults, compared to children without PTSD and who were victims of a single assault. Moreover, in children with PTSD, cortisol levels decreased as time from the episode of abuse elapsed. According to the authors, the cortisol levels decrease in time may reflect an adaptive process aimed at preventing the negative impact of prolonged exposure to high cortisol levels on cerebral structures (particularly, on frontal cortex and hippocampus).

Muller et al. (2014) examined the HPA axis and immune dysregulation at the first visit of children to a sexual abuse clinic, measuring plasma cortisol and IL-6 concentrations immediately after the stressful forensic interview. Notably, the levels varied, depending on environmental differences – i.e., place of residence (familial home or institution): children who resided at home had higher cortisol concentrations and no detectable IL-6 in their plasma. In contrast, children who lived in institutions had lower cortisol concentrations and detectable levels of IL-6. This study suggests that sexually abused children who reside in institutional settings have attenuated stress reactivity patterns when faced with an additional stressor, such as a forensic interview or medical examination.

Dysfunctional Cellular Processes in Children Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Prolonged cortisol exposure and a chronic inflammatory response can lead to oxidative stress and DNA damage at a young age. In this context, Atabay and Arman (2019) found that sexually abused children have significantly higher oxidative stress index (OSI) values compared with an age-/gender-matched control group.

Şimşek et al. (2016) reported that specific features of sexual abuse differentially affect the outcomes. In their study, oxidative stress was higher in victims of multiple abuses and sexual abuse within the family. Multiple assaults lowered the levels of the antioxidant coenzyme Q and superoxide dismutase.

One potential mechanism that links stress to cellular aging in humans is the erosion of DNA telomeres. Exposure to early-life traumatic events accelerates telomere erosion in childhood – an effect that worsens over time ( Shalev et al., 2013 ). However, controversial data by Ridout et al. (2018) demonstrated longer telomeres in a sample of children who were exposed to moderate or severe maltreatment, including CSA, in the previous 6 months. The authors speculated that their data reflect altered telomerase activity. Telomerase can be activated in an attempt to overcome telomere attrition and protect against oxidative stress. However, further studies are needed to understand the effects of early stress on telomere erosion and determine whether CSA has a specific impact on this process.

Long-Term Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal dysfunction in adults with a history of childhood sexual abuse.

The early environment is a significant factor in the programming of the HPA axis in adults, and in turn, dysregulation of the HPA axis can mediate one’s vulnerability to stress-related psychiatric disorders ( Table 2 ).

Long-term biological consequences of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) exposure.

HPA, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; BMI, body mass index; HIV, human immunodeficiency virus; IL-6, Interleukin 6; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor- α; mtDNA, mitochondrial DNA; NR3C1, nuclear receptor subfamily 3 group C member 1; 5HTT, solute carrier family 6 member 4.

One of the first human studies to report persistent changes in stress reactivity in adult survivors of early trauma showed that women with a history of childhood abuse, including sexual abuse, had greater pituitary adrenal and autonomic (plasma ACTH and cortisol) responses to stress compared with controls, in response to a standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor ( Heim et al., 2000 ). Notably, this effect was particularly robust in women with current symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Schalinski et al. (2015) examined the impact of CSA on phasic and tonic HPA response in women with stress-related disorders who had experienced CSA by measuring, respectively, saliva cortisol and hair cortisol. Authors found a down regulation of saliva cortisol, measured at 4 different time points during an idiographic trauma interview (phasic-acute stress), in the CSA group versus controls. In contrast, the CSA group had higher hair cortisol levels compared with control, demonstrating increased levels of chronic stress in the CSA victims. To interpret this apparent paradox, the authors speculated that CSA dysregulates the HPA axis to be less reactive to acute stressors while delaying the activation, explaining the higher levels of cortisol in the hair.

A study by Bublitz and Stroud (2012) found that pregnant women with histories of CSA had significantly higher pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), greater anxiety symptoms, and increased saliva cortisol awakening responses (indicator frequently associated with psychological stress) during pregnancy than women with non-CSA histories and women who had never experienced abuse.

Finally, a pilot study suggests that altered cortisol secretion in individuals who suffered from CSA is a contributing factor to the risk of adult obesity ( Hulme et al., 2015 ). Elevated glucocorticoid hormones in the CSA population might favor excess eating behaviors and negatively affect weight loss. This evidence is merely preliminary support for this hypothesis, necessitating further studies to understand the mechanisms that link CSA and adult obesity.

Immune System Dysfunction in Adults With History of Childhood Sexual Abuse

With the HPA axis, the immune system is likely to be a critical mediator of the greater risk for physical and mental illness, associated with childhood trauma.

A large body of literature has established that a traumatic childhood correlates with increased inflammatory markers, but when considering trauma subtypes, a clear association between CSA and inflammation is not always found.

Most studies have reported an increase in inflammatory activity – i.e., higher levels of IL-6, TNF-α, and C-reactive protein ( Bertone-Johnson et al., 2012 ). However, researchers do not exclude the possibility that these alterations are secondary to other variables, such as psychiatric disorders, higher BMI, and unhealthy behaviors that frequently occur in victims of CSA.

Grosse et al. (2016) showed that in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients who had been traumatized at an early age, a higher severity of CSA was associated with greater levels of IL-6 and TNF-α. Neither cytokine was associated with more recent stressful experiences (past month and past 12 months), and the same effect was not found for the other types of abuse.

The link between CSA and adult HIV infection should also be highlighted. The rates of CSA in HIV-positive people are estimated to be 30 to 53% ( McCall et al., 2018 ). In this population, HIV infection might be a consequence of behavioral and psychosocial factors, such as risky sexual behaviors. Nevertheless, the compromised immune function in these subjects might contribute to greater progression of AIDS ( LeGrand et al., 2015 ).

Thus, disentangling the long-term consequences of CSA on the adult immune system functions is not easy. The complexity of this evaluation is well demonstrated in a recent systematic review that aimed to describe the association between CSA and indicators of immune activity. The diversity in studies that were collected, and the heterogeneity of CSA and trauma assessments prevented a meta-analysis from being performed ( D’Elia et al., 2018 ).

Diverse could be the reasons why contrasting results are often observed in the context of immune system dysfunction. Several variables are commonly associated with CSA as well as with alterations on immune activity, representing important confounding factors. Above all, the comorbidity of CSA and psychiatric disorders in adult life is well established, and research clearly indicate that immune system alterations are present in several mental disorders. Moreover, among the population with history of CSA, the frequent increase in body mass index and unhealthy behaviors such as drug use, risky sex or smoking, all that elevate the risk of infection are further examples of potential confounders.

A second important factor may be intrinsic to the assessment of immune system functions. The immune activity throughout life is highly dynamic and responsive to diverse physiological and pathological conditions, such as the experience of stress, the gender (or the menstrual cycle phase that women are in at the time of assessment), the presence of infections. Thus, the timing when the adult assessment of cytokines level is performed is critical and several factors need to be controlled to help comparing different studies.

Eventually, the heterogeneity in the assessment of childhood traumatic experiences in different studies may also contribute to controversy in resulting effect of CSA on adult immune system dysfunctions. Indeed, CSA has a high prevalence of co-occurrence with multiple types of maltreatments, therefore considering sexual abuse as an isolate variable may be a confounding factor. Evidence demonstrates that when childhood maltreatment subtypes are studied separately, their impact on inflammatory markers is different ( Baumeister et al., 2015 ). Moreover, victim’s age when abused are often not specified. Critical periods of plasticity are well defined during childhood development of brain and immune system, thus different time of exposure to CSA during development may result in very different consequences.

Altered DNA Methylation in Adults With a History of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Whereas epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, have been studied widely as important mediators of traumatic childhood-induced adult pathologies, few studies have examined the effects of CSA on DNA methylation. Thus far, only promoters in candidate genes have been examined, including the genes for glucocorticoid receptor ( nr3c1 ) and serotonin transporter ( slc6a4 ). Epigenetic modification of the nr3c1 gene might be a key factor of the long-term effects of CSA on HPA axis function.

Perroud et al. (2011) analyzed a wide group of patients who were diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), MDD, or PTSD and demonstrated that experiences with CSA and its severity, frequency, and number of type of maltreatments correlate positively with nr3c1 methylation in the blood. This patter was especially evident in the subgroup of BPD subjects, in whom repeated abuse and CSA with penetration was associated with a higher percentage of methylation.

Beach et al. (2011) found similar results in the promoter region of the slc6a4 gene, identifying methylation at 71 DNA CpG residues in a sample of lymphoblast cell lines that were derived from women from the Iowa adoptee study. The authors found that a higher degree of CpG island methylation upstream of the slc6a4 gene was associated with reported CSA and symptoms of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Thus, CSA might contribute to greater methylation of this region, decreasing the responsiveness of the serotonergic system, in turn heightening aggressiveness, impairing impulse control, and engendering problematic social behavior – all of which collectively characterize ASPD.

Dysfunctional Cellular Processes in Adults With a History of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Following the hypothesis that CSA or a traumatic childhood in general affects developmental processes by accelerating cell division and aging, research has focused on determining quantitative indicators of these mechanisms in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The most common parameters include the length of telomeres (measuring cellular aging); the level of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which, when altered, indicate greater oxidative stress and inflammation; and the frequency of micronuclei (MN), (indicating chromosomal instability and altered cell division).

A large body of research on the effects of an adverse childhood has associated these experiences with shorter telomeres later in life. However, in CSA, the findings are often inconsistent.

Cai et al. (2015) analyzed a large sample of women to examine the association between stressful life events and mean telomere length and amount of mtDNA. Telomere length was significantly shorter and the amount of mtDNA was higher in MDD patients. Notably, both parameters correlated significantly in those who had experienced CSA or more stressful life events. The effect was cumulative, wherein the strength of the molecular markers increased with the severity of abuse. Notably, these changes were contingent on the presence of MDD. These results suggest that changes in the amount of mtDNA and telomere length are attributed to early life stress, even though they might be reversible and enter a depressed state in vulnerable individuals. One limitation of this study is that it did not investigate the specific effect of CSA on mtDNA and telomere length, instead, it evaluated the impact of CSA in combination with other stressful events.

On the contrary, Warner et al. (2020) specifically studied the effect of CSA and physical abuse on telomere length in adulthood. They observed that telomere length was 11.3% lower in individuals who experienced sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence, compared to controls. Notably, CSA resulted to be more associated with telomere length than physical abuse.

Nevertheless, inconsistent results have been reported by Sosnowski et al. (2019) , who examined the association between exposure to CSA (and abuse severity) and mean telomere length in monozygotic female twins and determined whether social support moderated this correlate. Whereas no effect of abuse was found on mean telomere length, among women who experienced abuse in the forms of non-genital or genital contact without intercourse, higher level of social support was associated with longer mean telomere length. These findings have been explained assuming that individuals who experienced more severe forms of abuse have least capacity to form social ties and, thus, to benefit from the buffering effects of support throughout the lifespan.

Failures in identifying negative associations between telomere length and CSA are not uncommon ( Mason et al., 2015 ; Vincent et al., 2017 ; Etzel et al., 2020 ). Telomere length depends highly on several factors, including age, parental age at birth, and life experiences. Thus, a limited sample size and high variability can often mask the effect of early traumas.

In the search for peripheral biomarkers of CSA-induced effects on chromosomal instability and aging, researchers have analyzed the frequency of MN in monozygotic twin pairs who are discordant for CSA ( York et al., 2013 ). MN contain chromatin from structurally normal or abnormal chromosomes that are excluded from daughter cell nuclei during cell division. MN form due to a failure in migration, spontaneously or in response to the environment, ultimately altering cellular gene dosage. The frequency of MN increases with age and is elevated in patients with several serious health conditions ( Bonassi et al., 2007 ; Murgia et al., 2007 ; Jones et al., 2011 ). York et al. (2013) have shown that the frequency of acquired somatic chromosomal changes, as measured by MN, varies by exposure to CSA, wherein victims of CSA have a 1.63-fold higher average increase in their frequency of MN compared with their twins. Moreover, this increase correlates positively with age only in CSA siblings; thus, their biological age was inferred to be on average 9.9 years older than their non-exposed twins.

Child Sexual Abuse Scars: Transgenerational Inheritance

Growing evidence shows that traumas can be transmitted to offspring. Several studies have analyzed the transgenerational transmission of telomere length, estimating its hereditability at 70%. Shorter telomeres at birth might be linked to maternal oocyte telomere biology and maternal physiological stress responses in pregnancy. Recently, Esteves et al. (2020) found that higher level of maternal adverse childhood experiences predicted shorter telomere length in the next generation, which was not attributable to demographic factors, prenatal maternal stress score, or postnatal maternal depression. The scores also predicted emerging behavioral problems in infants, especially externalizing issues. However, the sample did not include sexually abused subjects exclusively.

Moreover, the inheritance of CSA-induced changes in maternal telomere length appears to be sex-dependent, primarily affecting male infants ( Bosquet Enlow et al., 2018 ).

These results should encourage research to incorporate a multigenerational perspective in the study of the effects of early traumatic events.

Childhood sexual abuse has a substantial impact on psychological and organic aspects. Despite the large amount of evidence that clearly describes the immediate (on the child) and long-term (in adulthood) psychological outcomes of CSA, the neurobiological mechanisms that “translate” CSA to psychological changes are unknown. Further, few studies have determined whether and how the effects of CSA develop into structured medical conditions, such as immune and cardiovascular diseases, at later ages.

Research in this field has advanced thanks to the recent possibility of studying central nervous system pathophysiology in peripheral biospecimens, such as blood, saliva, urine, and tissues. Compared with central markers, peripheral markers are easily harvested and more amenable to banking; moreover, their acquisition is less invasive and inexpensive. Overall, the studies on peripherally detectable changes in this review indicate that CSA impacts physiological functions, including the HPA axis and immune system. At the cellular level, transcriptional regulation appears to be altered through epigenetic mechanisms, and high levels of oxidative stress and altered DNA telomerase activity indicate dysregulation of cellular processes.

We believe that the identification of short-term biological changes that are induced by CSA will allow pharmacological and psychological interventions to be implemented to prevent the development of structured psychiatric and medical illnesses in adulthood. Based on the individual variability in the vulnerability to CSA experiences, the identification of peripheral markers that predict the individual risk to later pathology would help the design of ad hoc treatments. Unfortunately, there is still a paucity of studies on this topic in children, necessitating greater effort in this area of research. It would be essential to design and promote longitudinal studies that investigate how CSA-induced biological changes modulate during development and eventually stabilize with growth. Furthermore, it would be essential to evaluate the association between these biological changes and psychological alterations. The evidence that neurobiological changes mediate the translation of a traumatic experience into psychopathology should be an essential issue to raise awareness about to encourage adherence to such studies.

The identification and validation of reliable peripheral biomarkers would aid in screens for CSA. Considering the emotional, psychological, and cultural aspects that prevent or hinder the victim from reporting sexual abuse (especially children, who have not fully developed the cognitive ability to recognize an act as abusive), it would be helpful to have peripheral changes that are recognized to be associated with (especially chronic) exposure to CSA. Moreover, CSA-specific biomarkers would be useful to distinguish it from other subtypes of child maltreatment and predict the type of psychological outcomes that result from this traumatic experience. Of course, this type of research in clinical contexts is quite difficult, due to the usual combination of early life traumatic experiences observable that produces confounding effects. Moreover, preclinical murine research in this case can hardly contribute, as a preclinical murine CSA model does not exist, and it is difficult to implement. Therefore, it would be desirable to enhance psychobiological research at the time CSA victims seek medical care (e.g., when these same victims access the emergency department) by identifying the immediate biological alterations resulting from this experience, monitoring these alterations over time, and assessing whether they correlate with the development of structural psychological alterations.

Finally, in the context of treatments for the resulting psychopathology, the existence of an association between CSA-induced changes and psychological symptoms implicates a reciprocal causal link. In such a case, we hypothesize that the modulation and variation of markers are associated with the degree of symptoms and that they reflect the success of the applied treatment.

Current research on this topic has several limitations. One major issue is the protocol that is used to record exposure to sexual abuse. Many studies differ in their method of assessing CSA, which complicates obtaining an organic collection of evidence on this topic. In addition, most studies measure exposure to CSA in adults through retrospective surveys, which can be misleading, because many events during life can alter the memory of abuse. Finally, an important limitation of these studies is that biological alterations have been investigated in a hypothesis-driven approach, whereas unbiased, genomewide studies would be better suited to shed light on novel biological pathways that are implicated in the translation of CSA to psychopathological risk.

This review of current research demonstrates the need to characterize the effects of CSA to identify the mechanisms that mediate the structuring of psychological and medical illnesses and ultimately counteract them. Once identified, such peripheral biomarkers would also aid in the identification of more vulnerable individuals. Finally, these markers have the potential to be used in the clinical setting to monitor the remission of symptoms and treatment efficacy.

Author Contributions

LL, CT, and VC made the bibliographic search and wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ginevra Sperandio for helping in the bibliographic search and for making the tables. The professional editorial work of Blue Pencil Science is also acknowledged.

This work was supported by the Sapienza University – 2019 Research Grant No. RG11916B50652E41 (to VC) and by Sapienza University – 2020 Research Grant No. RM120172B8B4427C (to CT).

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Unsubstantiated: An Essay of Sexual Violence

Susan straight on what it really means to believe women.

There is no documentation for these narratives. Call them what you wish. This cannot be fact checked. There are no police reports/medical examinations/official statements/newspaper stories. No proof in the way that you want proof. No paper trail. Only story. That’s what women have had forever. How can we ascertain whether any of this is true? Where did your friend/cousin/sister/teammate tell you this? She told me in the bleachers/near the lockers/in the gym/in my car/in the dorm room/with the candles lit/in the driveway/on the train/in the parking lot.

This is not he said/she said, because we said these things only to each other. Every day, in the southern California city where I was born and still live, I drive past the places where we were attacked. Passing the parking lots where my friends and I were in cars, I remember the silver mushrooms of the door locks. We took rides home from football games and house parties. Gas, grass or ass—no one rides for free. I remember the bumper sticker on vans, cars, trucks. Does this hurt? Does this hurt ? What about that? Not murmured in apology, but in anticipation. We were 14. We did not ride for free. We were told if we walked home, worse could happen to us.

I drive past the bleachers at the park where my brothers played Little League. I worked the snack bar because girls didn’t play baseball. We sold snacks. In the dark storage room behind the bleachers. I was 12. The two boys only a year older. First base and you can go . Do boys still use that term now?

I write this because women asked me to. Last year, I finally put into narrative form some stories of my life and my friends, cousins, relatives. I was told the essays could not be published because they could not be fact checked, and the phrase I learned as a college journalist, even as men were groping and attacking me then, came back like a finger poked against my spine. The details we remember? Insignificant. The events themselves, if we told someone, if we asked for help, would have been deemed insignificant, because we were insignificant as girls, and then women. Now years have passed, so the details cannot be verified. But we told each other. What we remember is rooted in the body and the senses: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford remembering her bathing suit, E. Jean Carroll remembering the lace of the underwear she was holding, the young women remembering the exact painting on the wall of the “massage room” of Jeffrey Epstein, and now that he is dead, there is no he said/she said . There is only the bravery that they told someone what happened.

I am 58 years old. Weekly I drive past the parking lot where at a broken cement stop, my 15-year-old friend and I sat side by side, our knees before us in our shorts, as it was summer, while she told me about the boy who’d raped her the night before. He was two years older than we were. He knew exactly what he was doing. He gained her trust over weeks. He talked more than any other boy we knew. She put her forearms on her knees and put her face into that cradle and I remember the back of her neck. That was 1976. I believed rape inevitable, and I didn’t want to have a baby by someone who attacked me, so I went to Planned Parenthood.

In their testified memories, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was 15, and Judge Brett Kavanaugh 17. They spoke quite separately, their sentences braiding together in vividly different threads. They grew up in the same place. They have friends and acquaintances who brought forth their own memories. It seems undeniable that something happened, on that night. The only written record was a calendar kept by a high school boy. Often, men confronted with the memories of sexual violence recalled by women deny them altogether, as if we fabricated not only the hurt but the entire night or series of weeks or months or years. That never happened. I was never there. She is mistaken. Her very existence is called into question. It’s as if two cars collided, both were damaged, but one driver insists he and his vehicle were never even at the scene, though the other car is smashed and dented and sometimes, completely totaled.

What were you wearing/drinking/thinking/expecting/when you went to the party? What did you say to make him think that’s what you wanted/what was he led to believe? We were in the wrong place of our own accord: meaning we entered a structure while alive and expecting nothing. I remember strange details about one house party. New Year’s Eve, 1977. My future husband and I were high school seniors. The house in a neighborhood wealthier than ours, abutting the foothills of our southern California city, more than a hundred people, dancing inside, moving through the kitchen, congregating to drink in the front yard.

A man staggering across the street toward us, maybe 25, older, with black hair in long wings down his face and neck, bellbottom jeans, blood covering his right hand, dripping from a cut. I was the kind of girl who corralled him quickly before he could get in trouble with the athletes, including my boyfriend. We were black, white, Mexican-American, Japanese-American. He was olive skinned, delirious, mumbling. I steered him inside the house, into the bathroom. I remember the beautiful gilt-edged mirror, so 1970s. I propelled him by the elbow toward the sink, and quickly he turned, locked the door, and grabbed my breasts, covering the front of my white sweater, featuring thin gold-thread horizontal stripes, with bloody handprints. (My first thought: Damn, I paid $17.98 for this sweater! Most of my paycheck for the week!) (My second thought: He’s going to rape and kill me.) He broke a perfume bottle on the sink and stood there, daring me to move. I don’t remember what he said, because I didn’t look at his mouth, only at the blood dripping on the white shag rug and the jagged glass thrust toward me.

I remember this distinctly: the music was so loud no one would have heard me scream. After what seemed like hours, the hand holding the glass slanting back and forth like a cobra’s head, boy pounded on the door shouting, “Who the fuck is in there? We gotta drain the lizard! Are you girls in there putting your fuckin makeup on? Open the door!” Then they broke it open with their shoulders. Baseball players. I still see the face of the first baseball player, golden brown, and his curly natural; I still see him now and then in my city. He saved me. They punched the man, dragged him outside and called the police. But none of the officers asked me anything. They took him away without speaking to me. My future husband was angry that I’d been so stupid. Someone gave me a letterman jacket to cover the blood on my breasts, because he said it made him feel sick. But I had to give it back before my future husband took me home. If we were in a car or workplace accident, or military battle, or natural disaster, we would be “in shock.” My teeth chattered in the silence. At home, I washed my sweater that night. Dried blood is hard to get out, but I had three brothers. I was good at bloodstained laundry. I wore that sweater for years.

I remember the places. Sewer pipe on the elementary school playground/back seat of a car/front seat of a car/stairwell in college/dorm room/office of a teaching assistant/lab of a chemical engineer at work. I remember the college-educated chemist 30 years older than me, as I was 20, held the back of my bra as if it were a harness and I a small horse merely trying to get across the room to do my work. He was out to prove I couldn’t leave until he allowed me to. He said, every time, that he was merely checking to make sure I was wearing a bra. That reminded me so vividly of sixth grade I didn’t even know how to react, and then I just refused to go into that workspace and was disciplined. I do not remember the dates, or the floor of the building. I remember the beakers on the counter.

What room of the house/seat of the car/kind of carpet/part of the couch/area of the yard/end of the pool/section of the bleachers/corner of the store/row of the theater/where the alleged assault took place? Was it a twin bed/queen/king? What was the day/week/year/time? What was the make and model of the car/truck/van/camper? The address of the house? Which bedroom? How many bedrooms were there? (Did we girls ask that question the minute we arrived at the party? Did someone give us a tour, so we could identify the master bedroom, the bedspread, the bathroom? Should that be standard?) How many people were there? (Guest lists, also standard?) What time were you taken/forced/carried/or did you voluntarily go into the bedroom/bathroom/garden shed/kitchen/basement/closet/office/laboratory? Who saw you enter that place? Who saw you leave? If you were hurt, how were you able to walk?

Every time I hear the song “Sexual Healing,” by Marvin Gaye, and it is played often, I remember another high school friend in my car, angry and then weeping. The song was new. She reacted violently, telling me to turn it off. She said the lyrics were disgusting. She whispered the words that made her cry. You’re my medicine/Open up and let me in. An adult in her family had forced his way into the place where she slept, and raped her. She was so shaken hearing those words, and I was so shaken when she told me, that I turn the song off, even now.

Every time I enter my kitchen, I remember a woman sitting at the maple table my mother bought when I was three. Eight years ago, both of us grown, she told me how her mother had been assaulted repeatedly by an adult man when she was a girl. Ten years old. Her mother told no one, until one morning the girl couldn’t walk to school. She had advanced syphilis. The woman said, “They never told us who he was! And later same thing happened to me. But I told! I told them!” She told only her mother and grandmother.

Why didn’t you report this? I did. Who did you report it to? My sister/mother/aunt/grandmother/cousin/friend. What did that person do? She listened/cried/hit me/hugged me/washed me/cried/combed my hair/washed sewed dyed dried burned my clothes/cried/shook her head/said she knew/said that couldn’t be true/said she’d kill him/said he’d kill me/said get in the car/said we’ll never tell anyone/said I love you.

We could tell you: the smell/gum/whiskers/one finger/two fingers/three/fingernails/rings/song/engine/bedspread/the smell/carpet like stiff worms/carpet like cement/burns on our shoulders/above our hipbones/our tailbones/astroturf/leather / vinyl/Naugahyde/grooved metal bleachers/asphalt/jeans/zippers/metal teeth drawing blood/human teeth drawing blood/braces/bracelets/dog tags/Irish Spring/cologne/four fingers a solid gate over our mouths/French fries/hot sauce/motor oil/there is no name for the inside of a knuckle pressed hard on our lips.

Last month, I sat with a cousin in the dim light of her living room, 100 degrees outside, security screen door letting in the noise of the street. We talked about house parties. She told me about the night when she was 12, at a house party a few blocks from where we were, and an older boy, maybe 19, bumped and bumped against her while they danced until she was in a hallway and then in a bedroom. Having been raised in Los Angeles during the Black Panther movement, she talked him out of assault by bringing up unity, the violence already done to her school and family by police, and his responsibilities to her as a young black man she called brother. That was 1970.

I told her about the 1977 house party and the sweater. We laughed about the sweater. I told her about the dorm room two years later, where a large athlete lay on top of me, threatening rape, and that I invoked our male cousin, who had an Uzi, and would arrive in the morning to shoot off the athlete’s testicles. If I told. I didn’t tell anyone, because the man removed his forearm from my throat and got up, and I left.

Then I told her about the doctor. He might have been 50. Sixty. I was 13. I remember only: glasses shining like small lakes in the bright reflection of the high-powered light. Does that hurt? Does that? What about that? I am lying on a table. No clothes. Shivering uncontrollably in the frigid air. A tube. He stands in the doorway watching. Maybe he was filming, I realize now. Maybe just watching. My mother is in a waiting room far away. She thinks I have a bladder infection. The bare metal table is swimming with my tears, running into my hair and down my neck. He tortures me for a long time, or for half an hour. Was I restrained—by equipment, or by obedience? I have no details for that.

This is what my cousin did not say. Let’s review/Let’s make sure you have your story straight/Let’s go over this again/Let’s assume you’re not exaggerating/misremembering/dreaming/telling tale tales/being dramatic because you were a teenaged girl/menstruating/hysterical/looking for attention.

I had never told anyone, not my mother or anyone else. But this year, writing about my childhood, I remembered. I have always been afraid to go to doctors, or to the hospital. But at an appointment with a nurse/practitioner, for a possible minor surgery, the first time we’d ever met, I told her why I was afraid of even minor procedures, why I had never spent the night in a hospital since my third daughter was born, in 1995. I had that child 17 minutes after arriving in labor and delivery because I didn’t want to go inside.

I avoided doctors for so long that I got severe anemia, detached retinas, and other illnesses. We sat two feet from each other, our knees companionable. She told me that when she was four, in the rural place where she was raised, a boy had threatened her with a knife and told her to pull down her pants. She told me that when she was 12, in a field across from her house, a man pulled up in a car and asked for directions, opened the door and said things so shocking and dirty that she ran into the fields to hide. She told me that when she was a young nurse, a physician had casually affixed a sticker to her uniformed breast. She protested vehemently. Though she saw him pull other nurses onto his lap, and affix stickers to them, he never approached her again. I cried, just a little, with this woman I had known for 20 minutes. She tended to my physical ailment. I went home, grateful. That night, I picked apricots from my tree and took them to my cousin, and we sat in the heated dark room on her couch for three hours. We told stories of our aunts, our grandmothers, of razors slashing clothes, of guns pulled from coats, of girls who survived and told only each other. We might never tell anyone else. We told someone. We told a woman. We are alive. It is documented in our mouths.

———————————————

Susan Straight’s memoir,  In the Country of Women   is now available from Catapult. 

Susan Straight

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Full text of Benedict XVI essay: 'The Church and the scandal of sexual abuse'

Vatican City, Apr 10, 2019 / 15:23 pm

The following is a previously unpublished essay from Pope emeritus Benedict XVI:

On February 21 to 24, at the invitation of Pope Francis, the presidents of the world's bishops' conferences gathered at the Vatican to discuss the current crisis of the faith and of the Church; a crisis experienced throughout the world after shocking revelations of clerical abuse perpetrated against minors.

The extent and gravity of the reported incidents has deeply distressed priests as well as laity, and has caused more than a few to call into question the very Faith of the Church. It was necessary to send out a strong message, and seek out a new beginning, so to make the Church again truly credible as a light among peoples and as a force in service against the powers of destruction.

Since I myself had served in a position of responsibility as shepherd of the Church at the time of the public outbreak of the crisis, and during the run-up to it, I had to ask myself - even though, as emeritus, I am no longer directly responsible - what I could contribute to a new beginning.

Thus, after the meeting of the presidents of the bishops' conferences was announced, I compiled some notes by which I might contribute one or two remarks to assist in this difficult hour.

Having contacted the Secretary of State, Cardinal [Pietro] Parolin and the Holy Father [Pope Francis] himself, it seemed appropriate to publish this text in the Klerusblatt [ a monthly periodical for clergy in mostly Bavarian dioceses].

My work is divided into three parts.

In the first part, I aim to present briefly the wider social context of the question, without which the problem cannot be understood. I try to show that in the 1960s an egregious event occurred, on a scale unprecedented in history. It could be said that in the 20 years from 1960 to 1980, the previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely, and a new normalcy arose that has by now been the subject of laborious attempts at disruption.

In the second part, I aim to point out the effects of this situation on the formation of priests and on the lives of priests.

Finally, in the third part, I would like to develop some perspectives for a proper response on the part of the Church.

(1) The matter begins with the state-prescribed and supported introduction of children and youths into the nature of sexuality. In Germany, the then-Minister of Health, Ms. (Käte) Strobel, had a film made in which everything that had previously not been allowed to be shown publicly, including sexual intercourse, was now shown for the purpose of education. What at first was only intended for the sexual education of young people consequently was widely accepted as a feasible option.

Similar effects were achieved by the "Sexkoffer" published by the Austrian government [A controversial 'suitcase' of sex education materials used in Austrian schools in the late 1980s]. Sexual and pornographic movies then became a common occurrence, to the point that they were screened at newsreel theaters [ Bahnhofskinos ]. I still remember seeing, as I was walking through the city of Regensburg one day, crowds of people lining up in front of a large cinema, something we had previously only seen in times of war, when some special allocation was to be hoped for. I also remember arriving in the city on Good Friday in the year 1970 and seeing all the billboards plastered up with a large poster of two completely naked people in a close embrace.

Among the freedoms that the Revolution of 1968 sought to fight for was this all-out sexual freedom, one which no longer conceded any norms.

The mental collapse was also linked to a propensity for violence. That is why sex films were no longer allowed on airplanes because violence would break out among the small community of passengers. And since the clothing of that time equally provoked aggression, school principals also made attempts at introducing school uniforms with a view to facilitating a climate of learning.

Part of the physiognomy of the Revolution of '68 was that pedophilia was then also diagnosed as allowed and appropriate.

For the young people in the Church, but not only for them, this was in many ways a very difficult time. I have always wondered how young people in this situation could approach the priesthood and accept it, with all its ramifications. The extensive collapse of the next generation of priests in those years and the very high number of laicizations were a consequence of all these developments.

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(2) At the same time, independently of this development, Catholic moral theology suffered a collapse that rendered the Church defenseless against these changes in society. I will try to outline briefly the trajectory of this development.

Until the Second Vatican Council, Catholic moral theology was largely founded on natural law, while Sacred Scripture was only cited for background or substantiation. In the Council's struggle for a new understanding of Revelation, the natural law option was largely abandoned, and a moral theology based entirely on the Bible was demanded.

I still remember how the Jesuit faculty in Frankfurt trained a highly gifted young Father (Bruno Schüller) with the purpose of developing a morality based entirely on Scripture. Father Schüller's beautiful dissertation shows a first step towards building a morality based on Scripture. Father Schüller was then sent to America for further studies and came back with the realization that from the Bible alone morality could not be expressed systematically. He then attempted a more pragmatic moral theology, without being able to provide an answer to the crisis of morality.

In the end, it was chiefly the hypothesis that morality was to be exclusively determined by the purposes of human action that prevailed. While the old phrase "the end justifies the means" was not confirmed in this crude form, its way of thinking had become definitive. Consequently, there could no longer be anything that constituted an absolute good, any more than anything fundamentally evil; (there could be) only relative value judgments. There no longer was the (absolute) good, but only the relatively better, contingent on the moment and on circumstances.

The crisis of the justification and presentation of Catholic morality reached dramatic proportions in the late '80s and '90s. On January 5, 1989, the "Cologne Declaration", signed by 15 Catholic professors of theology, was published. It focused on various crisis points in the relationship between the episcopal magisterium and the task of theology. (Reactions to) this text, which at first did not extend beyond the usual level of protests, very rapidly grew into an outcry against the Magisterium of the Church and mustered, audibly and visibly, the global protest potential against the expected doctrinal texts of John Paul II (cf. D. Mieth, Kölner Erklärung, LThK, VI3, p. 196) [LTHK is the Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, a German-language "Lexicon of Theology and the Church", whose editors included Karl Rahner and Cardinal Walter Kasper.]

Pope John Paul II, who knew very well the situation of moral theology and followed it closely, commissioned work on an encyclical that would set these things right again. It was published under the title Veritatis splendor on August 6, 1993, and it triggered vehement backlashes on the part of moral theologians. Before it, the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" already had persuasively presented, in a systematic fashion, morality as proclaimed by the Church.

I shall never forget how then-leading German moral theologian Franz Böckle, who, having returned to his native Switzerland after his retirement, announced in view of the possible decisions of the encyclical Veritatis splendor that if the encyclical should determine that there were actions which were always and under all circumstances to be classified as evil, he would challenge it with all the resources at his disposal.

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It was God, the Merciful, that spared him from having to put his resolution into practice; Böckle died on July 8, 1991. The encyclical was published on August 6, 1993 and did indeed include the determination that there were actions that can never become good.

The pope was fully aware of the importance of this decision at that moment and for this part of his text, he had once again consulted leading specialists who did not take part in the editing of the encyclical. He knew that he must leave no doubt about the fact that the moral calculus involved in balancing goods must respect a final limit. There are goods that are never subject to trade-offs.

There are values which must never be abandoned for a greater value and even surpass the preservation of physical life. There is martyrdom. God is (about) more than mere physical survival. A life that would be bought by the denial of God, a life that is based on a final lie, is a non-life.

Martyrdom is a basic category of Christian existence. The fact that martyrdom is no longer morally necessary in the theory advocated by Böckle and many others shows that the very essence of Christianity is at stake here.

In moral theology, however, another question had meanwhile become pressing: The hypothesis that the Magisterium of the Church should have final competence [ infallibility ] only in matters concerning the faith itself gained widespread acceptance; (in this view) questions concerning morality should not fall within the scope of infallible decisions of the Magisterium of the Church. There is probably something right about this hypothesis that warrants further discussion. But there is a minimum set of morals which is indissolubly linked to the foundational principle of faith and which must be defended if faith is not to be reduced to a theory but rather to be recognized in its claim to concrete life.

All this makes apparent just how fundamentally the authority of the Church in matters of morality is called into question. Those who deny the Church a final teaching competence in this area force her to remain silent precisely where the boundary between truth and lies is at stake.

Independently of this question, in many circles of moral theology the hypothesis was expounded that the Church does not and cannot have her own morality. The argument being that all moral hypotheses would also know parallels in other religions and therefore a Christian property of morality could not exist. But the question of the unique nature of a biblical morality is not answered by the fact that for every single sentence somewhere, a parallel can also be found in other religions. Rather, it is about the whole of biblical morality, which as such is new and different from its individual parts.

The moral doctrine of Holy Scripture has its uniqueness ultimately predicated in its cleaving to the image of God, in faith in the one God who showed himself in Jesus Christ and who lived as a human being. The Decalogue is an application of the biblical faith in God to human life. The image of God and morality belong together and thus result in the particular change of the Christian attitude towards the world and human life. Moreover, Christianity has been described from the beginning with the word hodós [Greek for a road, in the New Testament often used in the sense of a path of progress].

Faith is a journey and a way of life. In the old Church, the catechumenate was created as a habitat against an increasingly demoralized culture, in which the distinctive and fresh aspects of the Christian way of life were practiced and at the same time protected from the common way of life. I think that even today something like catechumenal communities are necessary so that Christian life can assert itself in its own way.

II. Initial Ecclesial Reactions

(1) The long-prepared and ongoing process of dissolution of the Christian concept of morality was, as I have tried to show, marked by an unprecedented radicalism in the 1960s. This dissolution of the moral teaching authority of the Church necessarily had to have an effect on the diverse areas of the Church. In the context of the meeting of the presidents of the episcopal conferences from all over the world with Pope Francis, the question of priestly life, as well as that of seminaries, is of particular interest. As regards the problem of preparation for priestly ministry in seminaries, there is in fact a far-reaching breakdown of the previous form of this preparation.

In various seminaries homosexual cliques were established, which acted more or less openly and significantly changed the climate in the seminaries. In one seminary in southern Germany, candidates for the priesthood and candidates for the lay ministry of the pastoral specialist [ Pastoralreferent ] lived together. At the common meals, seminarians and pastoral specialists ate together, the married among the laymen sometimes accompanied by their wives and children, and on occasion by their girlfriends. The climate in this seminary could not provide support for preparation to the priestly vocation. The Holy See knew of such problems, without being informed precisely. As a first step, an Apostolic Visitation was arranged of seminaries in the United States.

As the criteria for the selection and appointment of bishops had also been changed after the Second Vatican Council, the relationship of bishops to their seminaries was very different, too. Above all, a criterion for the appointment of new bishops was now their "conciliarity," which of course could be understood to mean rather different things.

Indeed, in many parts of the Church, conciliar attitudes were understood to mean having a critical or negative attitude towards the hitherto existing tradition, which was now to be replaced by a new, radically open relationship with the world. One bishop, who had previously been seminary rector, had arranged for the seminarians to be shown pornographic films, allegedly with the intention of thus making them resistant to behavior contrary to the faith.

There were - not only in the United States of America - individual bishops who rejected the Catholic tradition as a whole and sought to bring about a kind of new, modern "Catholicity" in their dioceses. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that in not a few seminaries, students caught reading my books were considered unsuitable for the priesthood. My books were hidden away, like bad literature, and only read under the desk.

The Visitation that now took place brought no new insights, apparently because various powers had joined forces to conceal the true situation. A second Visitation was ordered and brought considerably more insights, but on the whole failed to achieve any outcomes. Nonetheless, since the 1970s the situation in seminaries has generally improved. And yet, only isolated cases of a new strengthening of priestly vocations came about as the overall situation had taken a different turn.

(2) The question of pedophilia, as I recall, did not become acute until the second half of the 1980s. In the meantime, it had already become a public issue in the U.S., such that the bishops in Rome sought help, since canon law, as it is written in the new (1983) Code, did not seem sufficient for taking the necessary measures.

Rome and the Roman canonists at first had difficulty with these concerns; in their opinion the temporary suspension from priestly office had to be sufficient to bring about purification and clarification. This could not be accepted by the American bishops, because the priests thus remained in the service of the bishop, and thereby could be taken to be [still] directly associated with him. Only slowly, a renewal and deepening of the deliberately loosely constructed criminal law of the new Code began to take shape.

In addition, however, there was a fundamental problem in the perception of criminal law. Only so-called guarantorism,  [a kind of procedural protectionism], was still regarded as "conciliar." This means that above all the rights of the accused had to be guaranteed, to an extent that factually excluded any conviction at all. As a counterweight against the often-inadequate defense options available to accused theologians, their right to defense by way of guarantorism was extended to such an extent that convictions were hardly possible.

Allow me a brief excursus at this point. In light of the scale of pedophilic misconduct, a word of Jesus has again come to attention which says: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea" (Mark 9:42).

The phrase "the little ones" in the language of Jesus means the common believers who can be confounded in their faith by the intellectual arrogance of those who think they are clever. So here Jesus protects the deposit of the faith with an emphatic threat of punishment to those who do it harm.

The modern use of the sentence is not in itself wrong, but it must not obscure the original meaning. In that meaning, it becomes clear, contrary to any guarantorism, that it is not only the right of the accused that is important and requires a guarantee. Great goods such as the Faith are equally important.

A balanced canon law that corresponds to the whole of Jesus' message must therefore not only provide a guarantee for the accused, the respect for whom is a legal good. It must also protect the Faith, which is also an important legal asset. A properly formed canon law must therefore contain a double guarantee - legal protection of the accused, legal protection of the good at stake. If today one puts forward this inherently clear conception, one generally falls on deaf ears when it comes to the question of the protection of the Faith as a legal good. In the general awareness of the law, the Faith no longer appears to have the rank of a good requiring protection. This is an alarming situation which must be considered and taken seriously by the pastors of the Church.

I would now like to add, to the brief notes on the situation of priestly formation at the time of the public outbreak of the crisis, a few remarks regarding the development of canon law in this matter.

In principle, the Congregation of the Clergy is responsible for dealing with crimes committed by priests. But since guarantorism dominated the situation to a large extent at the time, I agreed with Pope John Paul II that it was appropriate to assign the competence for these offences to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the title Delicta maiora contra fidem.

This arrangement also made it possible to impose the maximum penalty, i.e., expulsion from the clergy, which could not have been imposed under other legal provisions. This was not a trick to be able to impose the maximum penalty, but is a consequence of the importance of the Faith for the Church. In fact, it is important to see that such misconduct by clerics ultimately damages the Faith.

Only where faith no longer determines the actions of man are such offenses possible.

The severity of the punishment, however, also presupposes a clear proof of the offense - this aspect of guarantorism remains in force.   In other words, in order to impose the maximum penalty lawfully, a genuine criminal process is required. But both the dioceses and the Holy See were overwhelmed by such a requirement. We therefore formulated a minimum level of criminal proceedings and left open the possibility that the Holy See itself would take over the trial where the diocese or the metropolitan administration is unable to do so. In each case, the trial would have to be reviewed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in order to guarantee the rights of the accused. Finally, in the Feria IV (i.e., the assembly of the members of the Congregation), we established an appeal instance in order to provide for the possibility of an appeal.

Because all of this actually went beyond the capacities of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and because delays arose which had to be prevented owing to the nature of the matter, Pope Francis has undertaken further reforms.

III. (1) What must be done? Perhaps we should create another Church for things to work out? Well, that experiment has already been undertaken and has already failed. Only obedience and love for our Lord Jesus Christ can point the way. So let us first try to understand anew and from within [ourselves] what the Lord wants, and has wanted with us.

First, I would suggest the following: If we really wanted to summarize very briefly the content of the Faith as laid down in the Bible, we might do so by saying that the Lord has initiated a narrative of love with us and wants to subsume all creation in it. The counterforce against evil, which threatens us and the whole world, can ultimately only consist in our entering into this love. It is the real counterforce against evil. The power of evil arises from our refusal to love God. He who entrusts himself to the love of God is redeemed. Our being not redeemed is a consequence of our inability to love God. Learning to love God is therefore the path of human redemption.

Let us now try to unpack this essential content of God's revelation a little more. We might then say that the first fundamental gift that Faith offers us is the certainty that God exists.

A world without God can only be a world without meaning. For where, then, does everything that is come from? In any case, it has no spiritual purpose. It is somehow simply there and has neither any goal nor any sense. Then there are no standards of good or evil. Then only what is stronger than the other can assert itself. Power is then the only principle. Truth does not count, it actually does not exist. Only if things have a spiritual reason, are intended and conceived - only if there is a Creator God who is good and wants the good - can the life of man also have meaning.

That there is God as creator and as the measure of all things is first and foremost a primordial need.

But a God who would not express Himself at all, who would not make Himself known, would remain a presumption and could thus not determine the form [Gestalt] of our life. For God to be really God in this deliberate creation, we must look to Him to express Himself in some way. He has done so in many ways, but decisively in the call that went to Abraham and gave people in search of God the orientation that leads beyond all expectation: God Himself becomes creature, speaks as man with us human beings.

In this way the sentence "God is" ultimately turns into a truly joyous message, precisely because He is more than understanding, because He creates - and is - love. To once more make people aware of this is the first and fundamental task entrusted to us by the Lord.

A society without God - a society that does not know Him and treats Him as non-existent - is a society that loses its measure. In our day, the catchphrase of God's death was coined. When God does die in a society, it becomes free, we were assured. In reality, the death of God in a society also means the end of freedom, because what dies is the purpose that provides orientation. And because the compass disappears that points us in the right direction by teaching us to distinguish good from evil. Western society is a society in which God is absent in the public sphere and has nothing left to offer it. And that is why it is a society in which the measure of humanity is increasingly lost. At individual points it becomes suddenly apparent that what is evil and destroys man has become a matter of course.

That is the case with pedophilia. It was theorized only a short time ago as quite legitimate, but it has spread further and further. And now we realize with shock that things are happening to our children and young people that threaten to destroy them. The fact that this could also spread in the Church and among priests ought to disturb us in particular.

Why did pedophilia reach such proportions? Ultimately, the reason is the absence of God. We Christians and priests also prefer not to talk about God, because this speech does not seem to be practical. After the upheaval of the Second World War, we in Germany had still expressly placed our Constitution under the responsibility to God as a guiding principle. Half a century later, it was no longer possible to include responsibility to God as a guiding principle in the European constitution. God is regarded as the party concern of a small group and can no longer stand as the guiding principle for the community as a whole. This decision reflects the situation in the West, where God has become the private affair of a minority.

A paramount task, which must result from the moral upheavals of our time, is that we ourselves once again begin to live by God and unto Him. Above all, we ourselves must learn again to recognize God as the foundation of our life instead of leaving Him aside as a somehow ineffective phrase. I will never forget the warning that the great theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar once wrote to me on one of his letter cards. "Do not presuppose the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but present them!"

Indeed, in theology God is often taken for granted as a matter of course, but concretely one does not deal with Him. The theme of God seems so unreal, so far removed from the things that concern us. And yet everything becomes different if one does not presuppose but present God. Not somehow leaving Him in the background, but recognizing Him as the center of our thoughts, words and actions.

(2) God became man for us. Man as His creature is so close to His heart that He has united himself with him and has thus entered human history in a very practical way. He speaks with us, He lives with us, He suffers with us and He took death upon Himself for us. We talk about this in detail in theology, with learned words and thoughts. But it is precisely in this way that we run the risk of becoming masters of faith instead of being renewed and mastered by the Faith.

Let us consider this with regard to a central issue, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Our handling of the Eucharist can only arouse concern. The Second Vatican Council was rightly focused on returning this sacrament of the Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ, of the Presence of His Person, of His Passion, Death and Resurrection, to the center of Christian life and the very existence of the Church. In part, this really has come about, and we should be most grateful to the Lord for it.

And yet a rather different attitude is prevalent. What predominates is not a new reverence for the presence of Christ's death and resurrection, but a way of dealing with Him that destroys the greatness of the Mystery. The declining participation in the Sunday Eucharistic celebration shows how little we Christians of today still know about appreciating the greatness of the gift that consists in His Real Presence. The Eucharist is devalued into a mere ceremonial gesture when it is taken for granted that courtesy requires Him to be offered at family celebrations or on occasions such as weddings and funerals to all those invited for family reasons.

The way people often simply receive the Holy Sacrament in communion as a matter of course shows that many see communion as a purely ceremonial gesture. Therefore, when thinking about what action is required first and foremost, it is rather obvious that we do not need another Church of our own design. Rather, what is required first and foremost is the renewal of the Faith in the Reality of Jesus Christ given to us in the Blessed Sacrament.

In conversations with victims of pedophilia, I have been made acutely aware of this first and foremost requirement. A young woman who was a [former] altar server told me that the chaplain, her superior as an altar server, always introduced the sexual abuse he was committing against her with the words: "This is my body which will be given up for you."

It is obvious that this woman can no longer hear the very words of consecration without experiencing again all the horrific distress of her abuse. Yes, we must urgently implore the Lord for forgiveness, and first and foremost we must swear by Him and ask Him to teach us all anew to understand the greatness of His suffering, His sacrifice. And we must do all we can to protect the gift of the Holy Eucharist from abuse.

(3) And finally, there is the Mystery of the Church. The sentence with which Romano Guardini, almost 100 years ago, expressed the joyful hope that was instilled in him and many others, remains unforgotten: "An event of incalculable importance has begun; the Church is awakening in souls."

He meant to say that no longer was the Church experienced and perceived as merely an external system entering our lives, as a kind of authority, but rather it began to be perceived as being present within people's hearts - as something not merely external, but internally moving us. About half a century later, in reconsidering this process and looking at what had been happening, I felt tempted to reverse the sentence: "The Church is dying in souls."

Indeed, the Church today is widely regarded as just some kind of political apparatus. One speaks of it almost exclusively in political categories, and this applies even to bishops, who formulate their conception of the church of tomorrow almost exclusively in political terms. The crisis, caused by the many cases of clerical abuse, urges us to regard the Church as something almost unacceptable, which we must now take into our own hands and redesign. But a self-made Church cannot constitute hope.

Jesus Himself compared the Church to a fishing net in which good and bad fish are ultimately separated by God Himself. There is also the parable of the Church as a field on which the good grain that God Himself has sown grows, but also the weeds that "an enemy" secretly sown onto it. Indeed, the weeds in God's field, the Church, are excessively visible, and the evil fish in the net also show their strength. Nevertheless, the field is still God's field and the net is God's fishing net. And at all times, there are not only the weeds and the evil fish, but also the crops of God and the good fish. To proclaim both with emphasis is not a false form of apologetics, but a necessary service to the Truth.

In this context it is necessary to refer to an important text in the Revelation of St. John. The devil is identified as the accuser who accuses our brothers before God day and night (Revelation 12:10). St. John's Apocalypse thus takes up a thought from the center of the framing narrative in the Book of Job (Job 1 and 2, 10; 42:7-16). In that book, the devil sought to talk down the righteousness of Job before God as being merely external. And exactly this is what the Apocalypse has to say: The devil wants to prove that there are no righteous people; that all righteousness of people is only displayed on the outside. If one could hew closer to a person, then the appearance of his justice would quickly fall away.

The narrative in Job begins with a dispute between God and the devil, in which God had referred to Job as a truly righteous man. He is now to be used as an example to test who is right. Take away his possessions and you will see that nothing remains of his piety, the devil argues. God allows him this attempt, from which Job emerges positively. Now the devil pushes on and he says: "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face." (Job 2:4f)

God grants the devil a second turn. He may also touch the skin of Job. Only killing Job is denied to him. For Christians it is clear that this Job, who stands before God as an example for all mankind, is Jesus Christ. In St. John's Apocalypse the drama of humanity is presented to us in all its breadth.

The Creator God is confronted with the devil who speaks ill of all mankind and all creation. He says, not only to God but above all to people: Look at what this God has done. Supposedly a good creation, but in reality full of misery and disgust. That disparagement of creation is really a disparagement of God. It wants to prove that God Himself is not good, and thus to turn us away from Him.

The timeliness of what the Apocalypse is telling us here is obvious. Today, the accusation against God is, above all, about characterizing His Church as entirely bad, and thus dissuading us from it. The idea of a better Church, created by ourselves, is in fact a proposal of the devil, with which he wants to lead us away from the living God, through a deceitful logic by which we are too easily duped. No, even today the Church is not just made up of bad fish and weeds. The Church of God also exists today, and today it is the very instrument through which God saves us.

It is very important to oppose the lies and half-truths of the devil with the whole truth: Yes, there is sin in the Church and evil. But even today there is the Holy Church, which is indestructible. Today there are many people who humbly believe, suffer and love, in whom the real God, the loving God, shows Himself to us. Today God also has His witnesses ( martyres ) in the world. We just have to be vigilant in order to see and hear them.

The word martyr is taken from procedural law. In the trial against the devil, Jesus Christ is the first and actual witness for God, the first martyr, who has since been followed by countless others.

Today's Church is more than ever a "Church of the Martyrs" and thus a witness to the living God. If we look around and listen with an attentive heart, we can find witnesses everywhere today, especially among ordinary people, but also in the high ranks of the Church, who stand up for God with their life and suffering. It is an inertia of the heart that leads us to not wish to recognize them. One of the great and essential tasks of our evangelization is, as far as we can, to establish habitats of Faith and, above all, to find and recognize them.

I live in a house, in a small community of people who discover such witnesses of the living God again and again in everyday life and who joyfully point this out to me as well. To see and find the living Church is a wonderful task which strengthens us and makes us joyful in our Faith time and again.

At the end of my reflections I would like to thank Pope Francis for everything he does to show us, again and again, the light of God, which has not disappeared, even today. Thank you, Holy Father!

--Benedict XVI

Translated by Anian Christoph Wimmer. Quotes from Scripture use Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE).

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In new essay, Benedict XVI addresses sex abuse scandal

In an essay published Thursday at CNA, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI offered his thoughts about the sex abuse crisis facing the Church. Benedict reviewed the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and examined its effects on priestly formation and life, before suggesting the Church's proper response.

The Invisible Male Victims of Sexual Trauma

"no one comes running for young boys who cry rape." —kevin kantor.

Posted October 15, 2020 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

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Anthony Edwards, an American actor and director, widely known for his role as Dr. Mark Greene on the series ER , is also a child sexual abuse survivor. He was molested by Hollywood producer Gary Goddard. In his 2017 essay on Medium, Anthony revealed:

“I met Goddard when I was 12, and he quickly became a dominant force in my life. He taught me about the value of acting, respect for friendship , and the importance of studying. Pedophiles prey on the weak. My father, who suffered from undiagnosed PTSD from WWII, was not emotionally available. Everyone has the need to bond, and I was no exception. My vulnerability was exploited. I was molested by Goddard, my best friend was raped by him — and this went on for years. The group of us, the gang, stayed quiet.”

Other famous male survivors of sexual abuse, assault or harassment, include Terry Crews, James Van Der Beek, Anthony Rapp, Alex Winter, Ryan Locke, Robyn Sinclair, and Terron Wood.

People who commit sexual violations against males can be male or female, family members, neighbours, co-workers, colleagues or peers, babysitters, current or past partners, sports teammates, military personnel, and people who hold positions of authority or power.

About 1 in 6 males have experienced child sexual abuse or adult sexual assault . As of 1998, 2.78 million men in the U.S. had been victims of attempted or completed rape. The mental health effects of sexual victimization are severe. Victims are at greater risk of suffering from depression and post- traumatic stress disorder, more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs and to contemplate suicide . One study found that these males experience an increased sense of vulnerability, increased anger /irritability, and damaged self-image , concluding that the immediate and long-term responses were similar to those described in female victims of rape, contradicting the myth that sexual abuse and assault is less harmful to males than females. And a study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that the sexual abuse of boys was more likely to involve penetration of some kind, which is associated with greater psychological distress.

Both men and women experience the characteristics of post-traumatic stress disorder. Still, there is a general reluctance to recognize and validate the pain it causes men. And there is limited research on sexual abuse and assault on males. When seeking supportive resources, such as homeless shelters, rape crisis centres, or therapy centres, sexually abused men find there are few, if any, services specifically designed for male victims.

A scan of support services in Canada for male survivors of sexual abuse found only three organizations in the country were dedicated to providing services to this population. Unwanted sexual experiences for males are “common, under-reported, under-recognized, and under-treated.”

Social pressures surrounding male identity play a role. Boys and men report shame for having been victimized in a sexual manner, as well as fear of having their sexuality questioned and for expressing vulnerable emotions. As Rick Goodwin, clinical MSW, from 1in6 and Men and Healing describes:

“We all grew up, regardless of gender , with these dictates of the male code. It’s not just boys who grew up with these values. It’s their siblings, fathers and mothers. Part of the understanding of masculinity is that boys are invulnerable. So, the conception of male victimization is hard for us to wrap our heads around. We know that there are components of masculinity that prevent guys from talking out. So, if part of masculinity is invulnerability, we also have to consider that vulnerability might make men shame-prone because it runs counter to what is expected of their gender."

Men who have been sexually abused or assaulted feel as though their masculinity has been compromised. Jordan (name changed), a survivor of child sexual abuse, confirms:

“I feel inadequate, like I am not a real man. And when people ask, ‘How could you have let that happen to yourself?’ it makes things worse because that is precisely what I have spent two decades trying to come to terms with.”

Men have difficulty acknowledging their experiences as traumatic. A study about childhood sexual abuse found that only 16 percent of men with documented histories of sexual abuse considered themselves to have been sexually abused compared to 64 percent of women with similar documented sexual abuse histories. Rick explains:

“Males take a longer time to identify that they’ve had a harming, abusive, traumatic experience. The average age at which men come into our clinic here in Ottawa is 45. Women don’t take that long. We also think that the average age for sexual abuse for boys is between the ages of 9 or 10. So, we’re talking about three and a half decades of males keeping quiet about this.”

Rick further emphasizes the need to recognize and support male victims:

“The number one regret for males I work with who are survivors of childhood trauma is, ‘Why didn’t I do this work 20 years ago, 30 years ago?’ They realize their experience changed them so profoundly. And that’s a painful acknowledgment because, of course, you can’t turn back time.”

—Riana Fisher, Contributing Writer, The Trauma and Mental Health Report

—Chief Editor: Robert T. Muller, The Trauma and Mental Health Report

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Robert T. Muller, Ph.D. , is a professor of psychology at York University, and the author of the book Trauma and the Avoidant Client .

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Child Sexual Abuse: Impact and Consequences Essay

Research has proven that cases of child sexual abuse are on the rise. In most of these cases, perpetrators are persons whom the children are well acquainted (Itzin, 2000). This has often complicated the process of getting justice for the victims. In fact, most cases of child abuse involving close relatives go unreported.

This is because the abused children fail to talk about their ordeal due to threats or fear of consequences that the assailants may face (Itzin, 2000). However, it is every person’s responsibility to protect children from abuse or to report such cases to the authorities.

The Child Protection Law imposes the duty to report cases of child abuse on teachers by virtue of being public school employees. Since children spend most of their time in school with teachers, it is highly likely a teacher will be the first to notice any changes in their behavior. Therefore, as a teacher, I am morally and legally obliged to report any case of reasonable suspicion of abuse.

The burden of proof of actual abuse, rest on investigating officers. The law further stipulates that failure to report such suspicions may lead to criminal and civil proceedings. Cynthia and Rowena (2011) say that talking to a sexually abused child requires a lot of precaution and wisdom. This is because the child may not be willing to talk about the abuse.

Due to the adverse consequences of sexual abuse, efforts to have Jody share her ordeal and get immediate help would be my priority. The first thing I would do is to create a conducive environment for our discussion. Therefore, I would choose a place within the school compound that she is familiar with. This would ensure that she is comfortable to talk and not subjected to any environmental stress.

Additionally, I would find out from her friend what she likes, candy, sweets, chocolate and bring it during the discussion to enhance our relationship. Secondly, I would take the immediate opportunity to reassure Jody that she can trust me and that it is not her fault to be abused.

Since most abusers tell their victims that they are responsible for their abuse, it is prudent to relieve her of any guilt related to that. If she would be willing to talk, I would ensure that I listen to her attentively, remain calm, be supportive and never force her to disclose any information she is not comfortable revealing. After listening to her story, I would ask her how she thinks I could be of help. This would help me know the best course of action to take. Some children may request that the information remains secret.

Because of her safety, I would go ahead and report the case, but would inform her of my decision. The immediate visible effects of child abuse are nothing compared to its future impact (Bryant-Davis, 2011).

The consequences of the experience can last a lifetime. According to Itzin (2000) the long-time consequences vary from one individual to another and depend on factors such as, the child’s age, frequency of abuse, and the relationship between the abuser and the victim. Such consequences fall in three categories, psychological, physical, and behavioral.

As a victim of sexual abuse, Jody could suffer from physical consequences, which according to Bryant-Davis (2011) may include, “…impaired brain development, poor physical health, and shaken baby syndrome.” Secondly, she could suffer from long-term psychological problems such as, anxiety and depression, low self-esteem, suicide attempts and poor relationship life leading to divorce and separations.

Behavior wise, Jody could have a high chance of involving in criminal behavior, poor academic performance, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, and delinquency. In conclusion, I can say that child abusers are beasts who deny their victims the happiness of childhood and prospects of a bright future. Therefore, every individual should be morally responsible and stand against this vice.

Bryant-Davis, T. (2011). Surviving Sexual Violence: A Guide to Recovery and Empowerment. London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Cynthia Franklin, Rowena Fong. (2011). The Church Leader’s Counseling Resource Book: A Guide to Mental Health and Social Problems. New York: Oxford University Press.

Itzin, C. (2000). Home truths about child sexual abuse: a reader. New York: Routledge.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Sexual Abuse

Essays on Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse essay topics for college students.

As college students, choosing the right essay topic is crucial for crafting a compelling and thought-provoking piece of writing. This webpage is designed to provide you with a variety of essay topics related to sexual abuse, as well as examples of and paragraphs for each topic. We believe that the right topic can inspire creativity and personal interest, leading to a more engaging and impactful essay.

Essay Types and Topics

Argumentative essay topics.

• The impact of sexual abuse on mental health
• The role of social media in addressing sexual abuse
• Exploring the relationship between sexual abuse and substance abuse

Example of an Paragraph for "The impact of sexual abuse on mental health":

Sexual abuse has long-lasting effects on an individual's mental well-being, leading to a range of psychological challenges that require attention and support. In this essay, we will explore the various ways in which sexual abuse impacts mental health, shedding light on the complexities of this issue.

Example of a Paragraph for "The impact of sexual abuse on mental health":

The profound impact of sexual abuse on mental health cannot be understated. It is imperative that we continue to raise awareness, provide support, and advocate for policies that address the psychological trauma experienced by survivors of sexual abuse.

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics

• Comparing the portrayal of sexual abuse in literature and film
• Contrasting the cultural attitudes towards sexual abuse in different societies
• Comparing the long-term effects of sexual abuse on individuals and communities

Descriptive Essay Topics

• Describing the emotional impact of sexual abuse on survivors
• Painting a vivid picture of the challenges faced by organizations working to prevent sexual abuse
• Describing the healing process for survivors of sexual abuse

Persuasive Essay Topics

• Arguing for the implementation of comprehensive sex education to prevent sexual abuse
• Persuading policymakers to allocate more resources to support survivors of sexual abuse
• Advocating for the empowerment of survivors through storytelling and activism

Narrative Essay Topics

• Sharing a personal story of overcoming the impact of sexual abuse
• Exploring the journey of a survivor seeking justice and healing
• Creating a fictional narrative that sheds light on the complexities of sexual abuse

Engagement and Creativity

We encourage you to explore these essay topics with an open mind and a critical eye. Your unique perspective and creative approach can elevate your writing and engage your audience on a deeper level. Use your voice to shed light on important issues related to sexual abuse and inspire positive change through your writing.

Educational Value

Each essay type offers a unique opportunity for learning and skill development. Argumentative essays can help you hone your analytical thinking and persuasive writing skills. Compare and contrast essays encourage critical thinking and the ability to see connections between different ideas. Descriptive essays allow you to practice vivid storytelling and sensory language. Persuasive essays give you the chance to advocate for change and influence others. Narrative essays offer a platform for personal expression and creative storytelling.

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1. Johnson, C. F. (2004). Child sexual abuse. The lancet, 364(9432), 462-470. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673604167718) 2. Kellogg, N., & Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect. (2005). The evaluation of sexual abuse in children. Pediatrics, 116(2), 506-512. (https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/116/2/506/62869/The-Evaluation-of-Sexual-Abuse-in-Children) 3. Summit, R. C. (1983). The child sexual abuse accomodation syndrome. Child abuse & neglect, 7(2), 177-193. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0145213483900704) 4. Faller, K. C. (1988). Child sexual abuse. In Child Sexual Abuse. Columbia University Press. (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7312/fall90628/html?lang=en) 5. Haugaard, J. J. (2000). The challenge of defining child sexual abuse. American Psychologist, 55(9), 1036. (https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0003-066X.55.9.1036) 6. Andrews, G., Corry, J., Slade, T., Issakidis, C., & Swanston, H. (2004). Child sexual abuse. Comparative quantification of health risks: Global and regional burden of disease attributable to selected major risk factors, 2, 1851-940. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep27829.28.pdf) 7. Paolucci, E. O., Genuis, M. L., & Violato, C. (2001). A meta-analysis of the published research on the effects of child sexual abuse. The Journal of psychology, 135(1), 17-36. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00223980109603677) 8. Finkelhor, D. (1987). The trauma of child sexual abuse: Two models. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2(4), 348-366. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/088626058700200402?journalCode=jiva) 9. McGlynn, C., & Rackley, E. (2017). Image-based sexual abuse. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 37(3), 534-561. (https://academic.oup.com/ojls/article-abstract/37/3/534/2965256)

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US to pay $100 million to survivors of Nassar's abuse. FBI waited months to investigate

The Justice Department has agreed to pay more than $100 million to a group of survivors over the FBI's mishandling of the sex abuse allegations levied against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday.

The person spoke under the condition of anonymity because the settlement has not been finalized.

The deal comes nearly three years after a report by the Justice Department Inspector General criticized FBI officials in Indianapolis for failing to respond to allegations of abuse they received about Nassar "with the utmost seriousness and urgency." It also brings the liability payouts in legal cases brought by victims of Nassar's abuse to nearly $1 billion.

A spokesperson said the Justice Department had no comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news .

The nine-figure payout will be distributed to more than 100 victims who filed legal claims against the FBI in 2022 following the release of the inspector general report − a group that includes Olympic champions Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman.

The report found that FBI agents "conducted limited follow-up" after first learning of the abuse allegations against Nassar, who has since been sentenced to what amounts to a lifetime prison sentence on sexual assault and child pornography charges.

The FBI's inaction led to "a delay of over a year" in Nassar's conviction, according to the report.

"After telling my entire story of abuse to the FBI in the summer of 2015, not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said," Maroney said at a Congressional hearing following the 2021 release of the report .

"What is the point of reporting abuse, if our own FBI agents are going to take it upon themselves to bury that report in the drawer?"

More than 500 women were abused by Nassar, who spent 18 years as the team doctor of the U.S. women's national gymnastics team and also worked at Michigan State.

The university later agreed to distribute $500 million to survivors, while USA Gymnastics reached a separate settlement with Nassar's victims of $380 million.

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Fact Sheet: How DHS is Combating Child Exploitation and Abuse

Every day, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leads the fight against child exploitation and abuse. As part of the Department’s mission to combat crimes of exploitation and protect victims, we investigate these abhorrent crimes, spread awareness, collaborate with interagency and international partners, and expand our reach to ensure children are safe and protected.

DHS battles child exploitation and abuse using all available tools and resources department-wide, emphasizing its commitment in April 2023 by adding “Combat Crimes of Exploitation and Protect Victims” as its sixth core mission.

As part of the Department’s ongoing work on this mission, today DHS is announcing Know2Protect, the U.S. government’s first prevention and awareness campaign to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse. In recognition of April’s Child Abuse Prevention Month, DHS is committed to raising awareness, preventing child exploitation and abuse, and bringing perpetrators to justice.

Between October 2022 and April 2024, DHS:

• Expanded and unified the Department’s focus on combating cybercrimes by redesignating the HSI Cyber Crimes Center as the DHS Cyber Crimes Center to enhance coordination across all DHS agencies and offices to combat cyber-related crimes and further the Department’s mission to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).
• The Blue Campaign, now part of the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking, increased national partnerships from 43 in FY22 to 64 in FY23. The campaign hosted 194 national trainings on the indicators of human trafficking and how to report these crimes with over 19,000 participants from the federal government, non-governmental organizations, law enforcement, and the general public. In April 2024, Blue Campaign announced a partnership with rideshare company Lyft to train their drivers, who interact with millions of riders per year, on how to recognize and report human trafficking. Read more accomplishments in the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking’s FY 2023 Annual Report .
• Identified and/or assisted 2,621 child victims of exploitation through the work of Homeland Security Investigations and made more than 6,100 arrests for crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. Learn more in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ’s FY2023 Annual Report .
• Joined the Biden-Harris Administration and interagency partners to collaborate on actions to keep children and teens safe as part of the Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force and the White House Online Harassment and Abuse Task Force.
• Tasked the Department’s external advisory bodies, including the Homeland Security Advisory Council , the Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council , and the Faith-Based Security Advisory Council , to each form a subcommittee to review DHS efforts to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse. In the coming months, they will share their findings, which will help inform the Department’s future efforts to tackle these issues.
• Began implementing a trauma-informed and victim and survivor-centered multidisciplinary workplan through the Joint Council on Combating Child Sexual Exploitation, established by President Biden and Australian Prime Minister Albanese. The Council, co-chaired by Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, is focused on building the capacity of countries in the Indo-Pacific region to combat this crime; jointly developing policy recommendations to tackle the issue; conducting joint investigations and operations; sharing research and development efforts; preventing victimization through education and awareness campaigns; and safety-by-design.

To accomplish this work, DHS coordinates with law enforcement at home and abroad to enforce and uphold our laws, protects victims with a victim-centered approach that prioritizes respect and understanding, and works to stop this heinous crime through public education and outreach.

Enforcing Our Laws

DHS works with domestic and international partners to enforce and uphold the laws that protect children from abuse. The Department works collaboratively with the Department of Justice, the FBI, U.S Marshals, Interpol, Europol, and international law enforcement partners to arrest and prosecute perpetrators.

• Increased U.S. government and law enforcement efforts to combat financial sextortion – a crime targeting children and teens by coercing them into sending explicit images online and extorting them for money. In the past two years HSI received 4500 sextortion tips from Cote d’Ivoire and 665 children have been identified and supported by HSI. Learn more about the crime of sextortion .
• Helped deny more than 1,400 convicted, registered U.S. child sex offenders entry to foreign countries through travel notifications sent by the HSI Angel Watch Center. These efforts build international cooperation to ensure all countries are safe from predators.
• Partnered with 61 regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces to investigate people involved in the online victimization of children, including those who produce, receive, distribute and/or possess child sexual abuse material, or who engage in online sexual enticement of children.
• Researched and developed modern tools and technologies that equip domestic and international law enforcement partners with advanced forensic capabilities to accomplish their mission to identify victims and apprehend child sexual abusers. For example, DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate developed the StreamView application to help law enforcement more efficiently address child exploitation cases by helping investigators aggregate, organize, and analyze investigative leads to identify the location of a crime, the victim, and bring the perpetrator to justice. Since May 2023, StreamView has led to the rescue of 68 victims, 47 arrests, eight life sentences, and dismantled eight trafficking networks having up to one million registered users.
• The U.S. Secret Service provides forensic and technical assistance to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and state/local law enforcement in cases involving missing and exploited children. 
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection screens all unaccompanied children and other arriving minors for indicators of abuse or exploitation, human trafficking, and other crimes, and all suspected criminal cases are referred to HSI.

Protecting and Supporting Victims

DHS incorporates a victim-centered approach into all Department programs, policies, and operations that involve victims of crime. This effort seeks to minimize additional trauma, mitigate undue penalization, and provide needed stability and support to victims.

HSI’s “ Operation Renewed Hope ” mission in July 2023 resulted in the generation of 311 probable identifications of previously unknown victims, including 94 positive contacts and several confirmed victim rescues from active abuse due to their locations being discovered through materials uncovered during the investigations. The investigation also led to the identification of perpetrators of child sexual abuse material. HSI completed “ Operation Renewed Hope II ” in Spring 2024, which resulted in the generation of 414 probable identifications of previously unknown victims, and positive identification of 30 previously unknown child sexual abuse victims, which included 8 victims rescued from active abuse.

• Once victims of child exploitation are identified and/or rescued, the HSI Victim Assistance Program (VAP) supports them and their non-offending caretaker(s) by using highly trained forensic interview specialists to conduct victim-centered and trauma-informed forensic interviews. In addition, VAP’s victim assistance specialists provide other resources to victims such as crisis intervention, referrals for short and long term medical and/or mental health care, and contact information for local social service programs for young victims, and agencies to assist in the healing process.
• The Center for Countering Human Trafficking hosted its second annual virtual DHS Human Trafficking Seminar for DHS employees who are part of the Department’s mission to end human trafficking or are interested in this work. Over 900 employees from across the Department attended to learn more about DHS’s work and victim-centered approach to combating this crime.
• HSI provides  short-term immigration protections to human trafficking victims , including victims of child sex trafficking. U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) provides victim-based or humanitarian-related immigration benefits to child victims of human trafficking, abuse, and neglect, including Special Immigration Juvenile (SIJ) classification, T visa, U visa, and VAWA immigrant classification.

Educating and Increasing Public Awareness

An integral part of this work is educating and expanding public awareness to help prevent this crime and hold perpetrators accountable. DHS does this important work every day.

• Trained more than 2,000 law enforcement officials and child advocacy personnel throughout the country to enhance their counter-child exploitation tactics.
• Educated over 186,000 kids, teens, parents, and teachers about internet safety and how to stay safe from sexual predators through the iGuardian program. DHS recently revamped Project iGuardian materials and using those materials, HSI has trained 419 special agents and completed presentations across 32 states and 8 countries. Presentations target kids aged 10 and up and their trusted guardians and focus on sharing information about the dangers of online environments, how to stay safe online, and how to report abuse and suspicious activity.
• USSS Childhood Smart Program Ambassadors educated more than 112,000 children, parents, and teachers across 31 states and the District of Columbia about how to prevent online sexual exploitation and child abduction. The Childhood Smart Program provides age-appropriate presentations to children as young as five as well as to adults. Presentations focus on internet and personal safety as well as other topics such as social media etiquette and cyber bullying.
• The HSI Human Rights Violations and War Crimes Center trained over 955 individuals across the interagency on female genital mutilation or cutting, a severe form of child abuse under federal law when done to individuals under the age of 18.
• The DHS Blue Campaign Blue Lighting Initiative, part of the Center for Countering Human Trafficking, trained over 260,000 aviation personnel to identify potential traffickers and human trafficking victims and report their suspicions to law enforcement in FY 2023. The Initiative added 31 new partners this past year, raising its total partners to 136 aviation industry organizations, including its first two official international partners.
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency administers SchoolSafety.gov, an interagency website that includes information, guidance and resources on a range of school safety topics. SchoolSafety.gov houses a child exploitation section and corresponding resources to help school communities identify, prevent and respond to child exploitation. Since its launch in January 2023, the SchoolSafety.gov child exploitation section has been viewed more than 17,380 times.

What You Can Do and Resources Available

• Project iGuardians™: Combating Child Predators
• Childhood Smart Program
• Visit SchoolSafety.gov for resources to help educators, school leaders, parents, and school personnel identify, prevent, and respond to child exploitation. 
• Learn more about sextortion : it is more common than you think. 
• Learn more from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children .

How to report suspected online child sexual exploitation and abuse in the United States:

• Contact your local, state, campus, or tribal law enforcement officials directly. Call 911 in an emergency.
• If you suspect a child has been abducted or faces imminent danger, contact your local police and the NCMEC tip line at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) .
• If you suspect a child might be a victim of online sexual exploitation, call the HSI Tip Line at 1-866-347-2423 and report it to NCMEC’s CyberTipline .
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Catholic officials in Brooklyn agree to an independent oversight of clergy sex abuse allegations

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NEW YORK (AP) — An independent monitor will oversee the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s handling of sexual abuse allegations under a settlement between the diocese and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The agreement announced Tuesday will address “years of mismanaging clergy sexual abuse cases,” James said.

Investigators with the attorney general’s office found that officials with the diocese failed to comply with their own sex abuse policies put in place after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002.

In one case, the attorney general said, a priest who admitted that he had repeatedly sexually abused minors was defrocked in 2007 but requested confidentiality. The diocese kept the abuse secret until 2017 when it announced for the first time that this priest had been credibly accused of and admitted to abusing children. The priest worked as a professor at two universities in the intervening decade.

Another priest was transferred from parish to parish after diocesan officials learned of problems with his conduct in the 1990s, James said. A nun who was the principal of a school in the diocese quit her job in 2000 because she had witnessed the priest behaving inappropriately with young boys, but the diocese only issued a warning. The priest was not removed from duty or barred from interacting with minors until 2018, James said.

As part of the settlement, the diocese has agreed to strengthen its procedures for handling allegations of clergy sexual abuse and misconduct, including publicly posting an explanation of the complaint and investigation process.

An independent, secular monitor who will oversee the diocese’s compliance with the enhanced policies and procedures and will issue an annual report on the diocese’s handling of sexual abuse cases.

Officials with the diocese, which includes the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, said they have cooperated with investigators and have worked to prevent future instances of abuse by clergy.

Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan, who has led the diocese since 2021, said in a statement, “While the Church should have been a sanctuary, I am deeply sorry that it was a place of trauma for the victims of clergy sexual abuse. I pray God’s healing power will sustain them.”

The attorney general’s office began investigating eight of New York’s Catholic dioceses in September 2018. A settlement with the Diocese of Buffalo was announced in October 2022. Investigations into the other dioceses, including those in Rochester, Albany and Syracuse, are ongoing, James said.

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US federal women’s prison plagued by rampant staff sexual abuse to close

Since 2021, eight employees of Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, charged with assaulting female prisoners

The US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) is closing a federal women’s prison in California that has been plagued by rampant staff sexual abuse of incarcerated residents.

Colette Peters, the BoP director, said in a statement to the Associated Press on Monday that Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin was “not meeting expected standards and that the best course of action is to close the facility”.

The unusual closure announcement follows a series of criminal trials of former correctional officers found to have repeatedly sexually abused women in their custody at FCI Dublin, located 21 miles east of Oakland. A 2022 AP investigation also revealed that the facility was known among staff and residents as the “rape club” due to the widespread sexual violence by officers.

Peters said the BoP had “taken unprecedented steps and provided a tremendous amount of resources to address culture, recruitment and retention, aging infrastructure – and most critical – employee misconduct”. The decision to shutter the embattled prison, she said, was “made after ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of those unprecedented steps and additional resources”.

FCI Dublin is one of six women-only federal prisons in the US, and the only one in the west. It currently incarcerates 605 people who will be transferred to other facilities, Peters said. No employees will be losing their jobs. “The closure of the institution may be temporary but certainly will result in a mission change,” she added.

Eight FCI Dublin employees have been charged with sexually abusing incarcerated women since 2021, according to the AP. Five have pleaded guilty and two were convicted at trial, including Ray Garcia, the former warden who ran the facility. One case is still pending.

Advocates for the incarcerated residents have said the abuse documented in the criminal proceedings does not capture the full extent of the extensive misconduct, and eight FCI Dublin residents sued the BoP last year. Their complaint alleged that incarcerated residents continued to face severe retaliation for reporting sexual misconduct, including being placed in solitary confinement.

Last year, the Guardian reported on the case of a former FCI Dublin resident who reported being sexually abused by multiple guards, but after completing her sentence was transferred to US immigration custody threatened with deportation. Advocates said last year that several survivors of sexual abuse in the prison were deported and that dozens more were threatened with removal from the US.

Susan Beaty, senior attorney for the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, who has represented survivors of FCI abuse, said the closure was long overdue, but that the news had caused a lot of stress and confusion inside the facility. The residents have been given a single bag for their belongings and were bracing for moves that could send them far away from their families, they said: “The BoP has already put the folks at Dublin through so much, and the scene unfolding right now in the prison is one of chaos and pandemonium.”

The news also comes after a US judge earlier this month appointed a special master to oversee FCI Dublin, the first time that has been done for the BoP. “[The] BoP was quite resistant to that and we’re concerned the closure is an attempt to evade that kind of accountability and oversight,” Beaty said. “The special master was on the ground last week and folks on the inside were encouraged and optimistic about the kinds of changes that might be coming.”

The judge on Monday ordered the BoP to halt any transfers until the bureau determined whether residents should be sent to another prison, released to home confinement or a halfway house or be granted compassionate release. The special master will review the transfer plans.

Beaty said they were further concerned that bureau would not be terminating any officers – “the same staff that have been running Dublin and participating in this really harmful culture”.

Peters said the BoP “for safety and security reasons” would not be sharing details about the timing of transfers, but that each woman’s “programming needs will be taken into account” and that the BoP would “endeavor to keep them as close to their release locations as possible and ensure that they have access to counsel at their receiving institution”.

One incarcerated Dublin resident, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said on Monday that the uncertainty was causing significant anguish: “All of the sudden, they’re yelling at us to go to your cell, things are going to change, we’re going to take people out, pack up this one bag ... They’re not communicating with us, we’re just living in darkness.”

Another resident said she cried as she watched her best friend be driven away and that she feared people would be transferred to facilities with similar misconduct problems. She said: “[I wish] they would try to fix what’s going on here instead of not hearing us and taking us and putting us somewhere else … I feel like that’s re-traumatizing all of us.”

FCI Dublin is one of many women’s prisons in the US to be plagued with major sexual abuse scandals. The two state women’s prisons in California have also faced repeated controversies surrounding guards harassing and assaulting residents , and retaliating against those who speak out. One former state guard was charged last year with nearly 100 sexual abuse counts , accused of violating at least 22 women in custody.

In 2022, the US Senate reported that staff had sexually abused women in custody in at least two-thirds of BoP facilities, finding that some women were abused for months or years on end.

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California women's prison where inmates have been subjected to sex abuse will close

LOS ANGELES — The beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons said Monday it will close a women’s prison in California  known as the “rape club”  despite attempts to reform the troubled facility after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse.

Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters said in a statement to the AP that the agency had “taken unprecedented steps and provided a tremendous amount of resources to address culture, recruitment and retention, aging infrastructure and — most critical — employee misconduct.”

“Despite these steps and resources, we have determined that FCI Dublin is not meeting expected standards and that the best course of action is to close the facility,” Peters said. “This decision is being made after ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of those unprecedented steps and additional resources.”

The announcement of Dublin’s closure represents an extraordinary acknowledgement by the Bureau of Prisons that its much-promised efforts to improve the culture and environment there have not worked. Many attempts to stem the problems at Dublin have come after the AP investigation revealed a pattern of abuse and mismanagement that crossed years, even decades.

Just 10 days before the closure announcement, a federal judge took the unprecedented step of appointing a special master to oversee the prison.

Advocates want prisoners freed

FCI Dublin, about 21 miles east of Oakland, is one of six women-only federal prisons and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. It currently houses 605 inmates — 504 inmates in its main prison and another 101 at an adjacent minimum-security camp. That figure is down from a total of 760 prisoners in February 2022.

The women currently housed at the prison will be transferred to other facilities, Peters said, and no employees will lose their jobs.

Advocates have called for inmates to be freed from FCI Dublin, which they say is not only plagued by sexual abuse but also has hazardous mold, asbestos and inadequate health care.

Last August, eight FCI Dublin inmates sued the Bureau of Prisons, or BOP, alleging the agency had failed to root out sexual abuse. Amaris Montes, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, had said inmates continued to face retaliation for reporting abuse, including being put in solitary confinement and having belongings confiscated.

Montes said she and her clients had suspected closure might be a possibility, but the suddenness of the decision so quickly after the special master appointment came as a shock. “It’s a signal that the prison knows that they are not meeting constitutional standards to keep people safe from sexual assault and sexual harassment,” Montes said Monday.

Montes said timing on the closure and transfer of inmates was still being worked out, but she hoped it would be done in a measured way.

“I think that the BOP is quick to try to transfer accountability and move accountability elsewhere as the way to remedy the issue. And that would mean, you know, moving people quickly without addressing people’s needs right now.” Many of the incarcerated women have physical and mental health issues that need to be dealt with, she said, while other inmates might be considered for release.

A former Dublin inmate who is a whistleblower in the civil lawsuit said Monday that the abruptly announced closure “just feels wrong” because it undermines the long process of getting justice for the women who endured abuse and appalling conditions.

“We’ve worked so hard to get a special master in there to clean house, so to speak,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of her status as a whistleblower in an ongoing lawsuit. The AP doesn’t name victims of sexual abuse without their consent. “And pretty much the minute after that happened, they say they’re just going to close it down.”

She said it would be inhumane to transfer hundreds of inmates to prisons across the country, away from their families. “What the women have gone through at this facility, the abuse they suffered, that was punishment,” she said. “They’re all low security. Send them home, send them to supervised relief. Let them be productive members of society.”

On Monday, two buses moved around the parking lot of FCI Dublin. Prison staff moved baggage and carts of supplies between the buildings and buses. An AP reporter did not see any inmates leaving the facility.

A history of abuse allegations — and convictions

Last month, the FBI again searched the prison and the Bureau of Prisons again shook up its leadership after a warden sent to help rehabilitate the facility was accused of retaliating against a whistleblower inmate. Days later, a federal judge overseeing lawsuits against the prison, said she would appoint a special master to oversee the facility’s operations.

An AP investigation in 2021 found a culture of abuse and cover-ups that had persisted for years at the prison. That reporting led to increased scrutiny from Congress and pledges from the Bureau of Prisons that it would fix problems and change the culture at the prison.

Since 2021, at least eight FCI Dublin employees have been charged with sexually abusing inmates. Five have pleaded guilty. Two were convicted at trial, including the former warden, Ray Garcia. Another case is pending.

All sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal. Correctional employees have substantial power over inmates, controlling every aspect of their lives from mealtime to lights out, and there is no scenario in which an inmate can give consent.

Inmate advocates worry that some of the safety concerns at FCI Dublin could persist at the other women’s prisons. “The problem isn’t solved by shipping these girls to new facilities,” said another former Dublin inmate and whistleblower who spoke on condition of anonymity. “These facilities still have the same issues.”

Montes said the civil litigation will continue despite the imminent closure.

“The BOP is the defendant in the case. It’s not FCI Dublin,” she said. “And so we are in the mindset that this did not end our case — that they still have a responsibility to our clients to keep them safe.”

The Associated Press