first, let me share with you that i am a survivor of sexual abuse and know so many people near and dear to me (friends, family, clients) who have also been victims. as recently as two weeks ago, the daughter of a friend of mine in another state was assaulted by a co-worker in an elevator. she took the proper steps to report him to her boss and it turns out that he had done this before to others and has now lost his job. also, since starting my new position 8 weeks ago, i've already heard countless stories of assault and abuse - in just 8 weeks.
dan allender, phd has written an excellent book on recovery from the effects of abuse called "the wounded heart," written from a christian perspective. he has a graph detailing types of abuse and they are all - i repeat ALL - considered severe. some are just more or less severe than others. what i went through is considered to be less severe, that is no one touched me, but there were three times between grade school through college that men exposed themselves to me, all very traumatic events. i was exposed to a lot of pornography growing up which counts as abuse and an employer sexually harassed me in the 70's though i didn't even know what that was at the time or i would've taken action.
when counseling others over the years, clients will often say "he tried to abuse me" and what i end up saying is he didn't try, if he did anything, then he DID abuse you. yes, it could have been worse but the trying is abusing. a lot of the below statistics are on rape but abuse comes in many forms so keep that in mind as you read the stats. there were many other things i could've mentioned here but since this is only one post, i've just listed a few for you to consider.
the website i perused listed multiple publication topics which i found to be quite telling:
anti-sexual violence movement
child sexual assault
intimate partner sexual assault
rape/sexual assault
sexual harassment
sexual violence and substance abuse
sexual violence by professionals
sexual violence in the workplace
sexual violence in the military
here are some statistics i've taken from one of the webpages this morning FYI:
**17.6% women in the US have survived a completed or attempted rape. of these 21.6% were younger than 12 when first raped and 32.4% between 12 and 17 y/o
** 64% women over 18 who survived a completed or attempted rape were raped by their husband, partner, boyfriend or date
** only between 26 and 37% of rapes are reported to the police
** 25% women and 8% men will be raped or physically assaulted by their current, former spouse, co-habitating partner or date in their lifetime
** 300,000 intimate partner rapes occur each year in women 18 and older
** between one in four and one in five college women will be raped each year
** every two minutes somewhere in American someone is sexually assaulted
** one out of 6 women in their lifetime have been victims of attempted or completed rape
** 5% (1 out of 20) of rapists will ever spend a day in jail or 19 out of 20 walk free
** sexual violence is associated with a host of short and long term problems including physical injury and illness, psychological symptoms, economic costs and death
** in 2000, nearly 88,000 children in the US experienced sexual abuse
PS: it was many years ago during the middle of a counseling session with an abuse victim as she recounted in detail her story that it hit me how my own traumatic events had prepared me to hear her story and bear her burdens. that God had been true to His Word once again - romans 8:28 and 2 corinthians 1 - for my good, others' good (somehow by His grace) and somehow for His glory we'll only understand in Heaven.
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