Here's the deal. It's Sexual Assault Awareness Month - teal ribbons, if you please - and while we generally have an ideal about how bad it is, sexual assault and abuse covers a lot more territory than we'd like to think, and it affects pretty much all of us.
Statistics
• Think of any three females you know. Statistics show that (at least) one of them is a survivor of sexual abuse.
• 1 in 10 women is sexually abused as an adult, usually between 18 and 30 years old.
• 2 in 10 girls are sexually abused as children or before age 18.
• 1 in 12 college men admitted that they have performed acts that could be defined as rape. Yet 84% of these men believe their actions do not count as rape.
• 1 in 6 boys is abused before the age of 16 - regardless of sexual orientation.
• At least 1 in 10 children are victims of incest.
• 1 in 10 children who are maltreated are also sexually abused - 20% of them before they're 8 years old.
• There are about 39 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
• About 85 in 100 girls are victims of sexual harassment in public school.
• Most sexual crimes are NOT committed by Mr. Stranger-Danger Predator. Over 9 in 10 are committed by someone the victim knows. (And for what it's worth, the predator in your neighborhood is 98% likely to be heterosexual, even if he rapes boys. Remember, rape isn't about sex so much as control.)
• Almost half of all rapes occur in the victims' homes.
• 1 in 5 kids is solicited sexually online.
• About a quarter of sexual offenders are under 18 years old.
• Less than a third of all rape cases are ever reported. Other types of abuses (molestation, incest, harassment, threats, or child sexual abuse) are nearly never reported.
• In the time it took you to read to this point, another girl or woman was raped. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a female is raped every 2 minutes in this country.
Consequences
You can easily find lists of common symptoms of sexual abuse. But you won't find much on longer-term consequences.
• In younger children, sexual abuse can cause seizures and actually alter brain development.
• Younger children who are sexually abused are almost guaranteed to become repeat victims of similar abuse. They are unlikely to be able to develop any kind of appropriate personal boundaries as adults. Women are at least two times as likely to be victimized, men are five times as likely.
• Child victims may suffer psychological symptoms for the rest of their lives. They are more likely than any other group to become sexual offenders themselves.
• Teen victims are more likely than others to develop eating disorders, suicidal behavior, and risky sexual behavior ... all of which may last for years.
• Victims of marital or date rape are 11 times more likely to be clinically depressed, and 6 times more likely to experience social phobia than are non-victims.
• Adult victims may suffer psychological symptoms for 10 to 15 years or more.
Ways to get involved
Victims aren't just random strangers. They are your children, your partners, your family. Sexual abuse isn't a socially acceptable topic. (Which is exactly why it flourishes.) But if you aren't a victim, you probably know dozens - whether you realize it or not. And how does that make you feel? Uh huh.
1. Join the teal ribbon campaign. Buy a pin or make your own, get a car magnet or tie a length of ribbon on your car antenna or on the end of the right windshield wiper. Just having it out there makes it more likely that others will notice, and maybe ask.
2. Get educated. What we used to "know" about sexual abuse is half wrong, and only the tip of the iceberg compared to what we now "know" - and as Agent K said in Men in Black, imagine what we'll know tomorrow. If you're a parent, share with your kids and make sure they know they can talk to you about anything!
3. Take action in your community, if you have the time. Visit www.nsvrc.org for lots of low-cost and free ways to take action.
I have only a handful of pet causes. This is one. It gets its own blog post because it is nearly an epidemic. If we want to look outside the U.S., it's ... well, it's no better. In some countries, it's rare to find a female who hasn't been a victim of unimaginable sexual abuse.
What does it say about us as humans, that we can allow half the population to be victimized while we stand by? I'm posting this to get your attention. I'm extending a call to action because just knowing about it doesn't stop it. Letting others know it's unacceptable - that's the first step.
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