This week, Boz tackles the enormously difficult, sensitive problem of sexual abuse by a sibling.
I imagine we all know of these types of cases. The statistics Boz includes are staggering:
"Juveniles account for more than one-third of those known to police to have committed sexual offenses against minors. Many of these young offenders are victimizing their own siblings. One study found that juveniles who sexually abuse siblings do so at a rate of approximately five times the rate of parent-child sexual abuse."
The steps Boz suggests need to be taken if parents discover sexual abuse going on in their own home are so terrifyingly difficult that they sound almost impossible. It does not surprise me that most parents cannot force themselves to take these steps, starting with the first one: Report the crime.
Here on Fanda Eagles we speak out loudly on behalf of victims/survivors. It is far easier to advocate for a victim when the person who hurt them as a child was an adult missionary dorm parent or teacher, or when the people who failed to report the crime or believe and protect the victim were adult male mission leaders.
As you read Boz' blog post, keep the victim at the center of your focus. What is the right thing to do for the victim? Not for the family's reputation, not for the protection of a troubled adolescent who has taken advantage of the most convenient target: a younger sibling. Instead of asking, "What will people think?" we need to ask, "What does the victim need?"
I have met many victims/survivors of sibling sexual abuse. They have told me their stores with much emotion, and often with great pain over the failure of their parents to advocate for THEM, to protect THEM. The effects of being victimized by an older sibling in a sexual way are NOT minimal. These horrors are very traumatizing, and the truth that a CRIME has been committed against them never gets acknowledged.
This response MUST be changed. Please read Boz' article and consider his message.
http://boz.religionnews.com/2015/06/12/ ... o-and-why/