The truth about child sex abuse
Maeve Lewis, a psychotherapist with over 20 years’ experience in leadership in the area of sexual abuse and Executive Director of One in Four, outlines the case for a national action plan to tackle the scourge of child sex abuse.
The series of devastating reports published in the first decade of this century created an assumption in Ireland that child sexual abuse is a thing of the past. That assumption is unfounded. Although it does not conform to our national self-image, sexual abuse is highly prevalent here. The SAVI Report (2002) showed that 23 per cent of Irish men and 30 per cent of Irish women had unwanted sexual experiences in childhood. Naturally, we want to recoil from these harsh statistics, but what they actually mean is that each one of us must know somebody in our intimate circle who was sexually abused as a child. It also means that there is a large number of unidentified sex offenders living in our communities.
The statutory inquiries focused on abuse within the Catholic Church, creating a belief that children are harmed outside the family. This is also unfounded. Almost half the victims are abused by a close family member.
Children generally do not tell. They are groomed by their abuser to believe that it is their inherent badness that provoked the abuse, that they won’t be believed or that the consequences of telling will be catastrophic.
This secrecy and silencing is the core of sexual abuse, and is often supported by a collusive family dynamic. But this dynamic also operates at a societal level. We have great difficulty in integrating the intimate, personal trauma of sexual abuse into our collective awareness. Despite the daily feed of court reports of sexual offences, the three out of four Irish people have not been sexually abused tend to shrink from the reality of what is happening under our noses. Our limited public discourse focuses on the individual experience rather than recognising sexual abuse as an inherent systemic social failure that must concern us all.
We regard the impact of sexual abuse as an individual pathology rather than as an expression of the society we have created. The one in four who were victimised are further silenced and isolated. Silence breeds secrecy, and secrecy facilitates the cycle of abuse to continue in perpetuity.
And the children of today? The truth is that we do not know. It was intended that the SAVI research would be replicated 10 years later, but this hasn’t happened. We urgently need this information.
At One in Four we report all allegations of abuse to Tusla child protection teams. But those teams are woefully under-resourced so historic allegations are not investigated with any urgency. Yet we know from our sex-offender programme that offenders will continue to abuse until they are caught. Men who abused their own children go on to abuse their grandchildren, causing massive inter-generational harm.
We estimate that fewer than 5 per cent of child sex offenders are ever convicted. The unpalatable fact is that sex offenders can act with impunity. Most offenders on our programme will never be convicted, though they acknowledge their behaviour and can be supported to live offence-free lives. They travel from all over the country to attend One in Four, but we need accessible treatment programmes in every county.
When a survivor decides to make a complaint, the outcomes are uneven. While the Gardaí have greatly improved their response to people reporting sexual offences, the criminal trial experienced is still perceived by many victims as humiliating and re-traumatising. It is no wonder the reporting rate is so low.
There are some positive developments. Tusla is trying to create a consistent response to children at risk but are hampered by inadequate funding. The recent Criminal Justice (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 will hopefully improve the experience of survivors in court. The forthcoming victim’s rights legislation recognises the vulnerability of victims and will situate their needs more centrally in the criminal justice process.
We are still failing our children, with terrible consequences for future generations. We must implement a national action plan to address this scourge if we are not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Contact:
One in Four is an NGO providing psychotherapy and advocacy services to men and women who were sexually abused in childhood and to their families, and a sex offender treatment programme.
For more information
W: www.oneinfour.ie
T: 01 662 4070
E: info@oneinfour.ie
