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GET THE FACTS

Children are often targets of sexual predators and opportunists who assault them. According to the Center Against Sexual Abuse 38% of girls and 16% of boys are sexually abused before the age of 18, and in one sample year, 1994, the Child Protective Services of the United States said 345,000 sexual abuse incidents were reported.

Since we know that 90-95% of all sexual abuse cases go unreported to the police, (Center Against Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault Statistics, page 1 , Education Prevention and Treatment, 1998, the Internet) the dimensions of the problem become staggering. As adults, these children grow up to experience a wide variety of problems which must be dealt with; 70-80% of sexual abuse survivors report excessive use of drugs and alcohol, and women who reported childhood rape were three times more likely to become pregnant before age 18.

We also know that children who grow up in a family where there is domestic violence are eight times more likely to be sexually molested within that family.

Violent behavior is to a large extent learned in the home; teenage boys who witness their fathers hit their female partners are three times more likely to hit their own female partners than those who have not witnessed domestic violence.

Yearly, 3.3 million children in the United States, between ages 3-17, are at risk to witnessing domestic violence.

The community must pay a cost to support such national law enforcement efforts as FBI searches for missing and exploited children; it is estimated that in more than half of the kidnappings of children by parents in this country, the abductions occur in the context of domestic violence.

Domestic violence even contributes to the drug problem in the U.S. A.; older children who witness domestic violence can be at high risk for alcohol and drug abuse, sexually acting out, becoming runaways and committing suicide.

The community pays a high price for domestic violence; 63% of all American males between the ages of 11 and 20 who are incarcerated for homicide were convicted of an offense involving the killings of their mother's batterer.

Recent research indicates that a male growing up in a home with domestic violence is 100 times more likely to be an abuser as an adult, 6 times more likely to commit suicide, 24 times more likely to be sexually assaulted, and 60 times more likely to end up in delinquent behavior as adults. (National Victim Center, Internet posting of The New Jersey Crime Victims Law Center, Inc., 1998)

last updated by David Clarke on 20 Jan 2001