Читать книгу Predators Live Among us - Diane Roblin Lee - Страница 18

Many people are under the illusion that child sexual abuse simply involves fondling (as though fondling isn’t a big deal). The reality is quite different.

In the inquiry into the Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland in 1989, the victims testified that they had been fondled in the showers and beds, and some had also been subjected to sexual acts including fellatio and sodomy. Several spoke of severe physical abuse. According to John McIsaac, a former resident,

“If you went along with the sexual acts, the physical beatings weren’t going to happen as much.”²²

In a survey of the crimes committed by child molesters referred to a Massachusetts forensic mental health clinic, it was found that 39 percent were confined to fondling or masturbation, but 31 percent involved oral, anal or vaginal penetration and 13 percent involved both. No data were available for 17 percent of the subjects of the study.²³

A Kingston, Ontario father who sodomized his two-year-old son was so brutal that the child had to be surgically fitted with a colostomy bag.²⁴

A study by the Kingston Sexual Behavior Clinic of 150 incarcerated sex offenders showed that 58 percent of child molesters used force beyond what was necessary to commit their crimes.²⁵

The Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect in 2001 reported that “attempted and completed sexual activity accounted for over one-third (35 percent) of all substantiated reports of sexual abuse.”

Even when the behavior of an offender may be gentle or cajoling at first, study after study shows that the activity and the use of force or coercion usually accelerates as the molestation continues. When a child molester gets away with his abuse for a period of time, it appears that he gains confidence, a sense of invulnerability and a sense of power over the victims.