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While the prevalence and incidents of child sexual abuse varies around the world, there is nowhere that it does not exist.

Because not all victims report their abuse, not all offenders are caught and some allegations are false – it is impossible to know, definitively, how widespread the problem is. Canadian studies suggest that 19 out of 20 cases are unreported. American statistics show that 67 percent of sexual assaults are committed against children and teenagers. Of those, 34 percent involve children under the age of 12.

Another difficulty with trying to ascertain the actual prevalence is that different researchers with different definitions in different types of population groups ask different questions through different means—such as via telephone, face-to-face or written questionnaires. These differences can affect results.

Further, according to Dr. J. Hopper who has done extensive research in the field,

“Any research study, even one with the most effective methodology, is likely to underestimate the actual prevalence of sexual abuse in the population being investigated. There is evidence coming to light that as many as one in three incidents of child sexual abuse are not remembered by adults who experienced them, and that the younger the child was at the time of the abuse, and the closer the relationship to the abuser, the more likely one is not to remember.”⁷

Combining these research gathering issues with the fact that it is impossible to get information on every instance of abuse, one has to conclude that actual figures are impossible to determine.

The only conclusion is that the studies

“clearly confirm sexual abuse to be an international problem.”⁸

Until recent years, there was very little written about the subject because it was regarded as a relatively rare aberration—a taboo. In the 1970s, however, it began to show up in more and more studies as a contributing factor in all kinds of emotional, relational and behavioral disturbances. A nationwide study in the United States found a 600 percent rise in the number of reported cases from 1976 to 1982!⁹ In Britain, reports of abuse rose from seven in 1977 to 527 by 1986.¹⁰

Julian Sher, author of One Child at a Time, tells the story of Paul Griffiths, an officer in Manchester, England, who was engaged in tackling sex crimes. In the 10 years between 1990 and 2000, issues dealing with child obscenity rose from three to 87 percent of his unit’s cases. The rise was credited to the sudden availability of child pornography via the Internet, which started to be used by the general public in 1992.

While it is now generally accepted that one in four women and one in six to ten men have been abused in childhood,¹¹ other, more recent studies suggest that the numbers are considerably higher. From 2005 information supplied by the Public Health Agency of Canada, the most extensive study of child sexual abuse in Canada was conducted by the Committee on Sexual Offences Against Children and Youths. The results of the report revealed that 53 percent of Canadian women and 31 percent of Canadian men were sexually abused as children. That means that, according to this report, in any representative lineup at a football stadium, theatre or grocery store, about half of the women and a third of the men have experienced some kind of sexual abuse as children!

But it gets worse. In 2006, Angela Shelton, a Hollywood screenwriter, model and actress, produced a multi-award winning documentary called “Searching for Angela Shelton.” Her goal was to meet other Angela Sheltons in America and survey women in the US. As she began meeting other Angelas, she found that 70 percent had been victims of rape, childhood sexual assault and / or domestic violence.

In 2006, the United Nations released the first “UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence against Children.” It was the first comprehensive, global study conducted by the UN on all forms of violence against children. It revealed that:

• Almost 53,000 children died worldwide in 2002 as a result of homicide.

• 150 million girls and 73 million boys under 18 experienced forced sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual violence during 2002.

• Estimates from 2000 suggest that 1.8 million children were forced into prostitution and pornography and 1.2 million were victims of trafficking.¹²

While the study engaged directly with children, providing opportunities for them to participate in all regional consultations, describing both their experiences and their proposals for ending the abuse, the figures are, at best, estimates, because so much that happens in secret is kept in secret.

A medical article on child abuse was published in the June, 2007 edition of the Malta Medical Journal, written by pediatricians Dr. Simon Attard Montalto and Dr. Mariella Mangion. In it, they stated that the “worrying” increase in figures of child abuse cannot be explained away by improved medical diagnosis or increased awareness. The reasons given for the increasing numbers included,

“disintegration of social protective barriers, family fragmentation, increase in unwanted babies, pressures of parenting, daily stress, and crime—especially associated with illegal drug use.”

Efforts to determine a realistic estimate of the magnitude of the problem are increasingly complicated by estranged couples fabricating claims of abuse on their offspring by their ex-partner, thereby using the children as pawns in their battles.

We have to kick it up a few notches for our kids. All of the above reasons are based on some form of individual selfishness, bad choices and immaturity. These numbers could come down with each person making the individual choice in the quiet of his or her own home, to grow up and live differently. That’s not a statement of judgement. It’s a statement of recognition that little ones around the world can be protected from a lifetime of pain if we just reach out to help ease the stresses of others rather than always reaching inward to look after ourselves.