Child Sexual Abuse is predictable and preventable when we surround children with knowledgeable and outspoken adults and we all play a part in the solution.
Predict: is to declare or indicate in advance; especially to foretell on the basis of observation, experience, or scientific reason.(1)
There are over 39 million survivors of child sexual abuse in America.(2)
From them experts have documented time after time, behavior patterns that appear BEFORE abuse occurs. So, with the right training, we can recognize when children are in danger and put best practices in place to directly reduce the risk of abuse in our homes, neighborhoods and youth serving organizations.
Child Sexual Abuse Best Practices Introduction
As you can imagine and have probably experienced for yourself, child sexual abuse is a difficult subject for most adults to talk about, let alone the children who are its victims. Unfortunately it is our silence that enables child molesters.
In her book, The Socially Skilled Child Molester, Dr. Carla van Dam states that "Child molesters [also] gravitate to those people who are most likely to be too polite to fend them off, too shy and anxious to tell them to leave, too dependent to be assertive, and too impressed by rank, power, status or money to do the right thing. Child molesters deliberately associate with adults who cannot address these issues. They seek out adults who worry about hurting people's feelings. They charm adults who do not believe it could happen."(3)
Our Silence Enables Child Molesters
- Empower adults to hold each other mutually accountable;
- Teach kids "the language of abuse" and give them permission to tell;
- And most importantly, you'll put offenders on notice that you're watching and your kids are off limits!