Child Sexual Abuse is not the same as rape although obviously it includes rape but it also includes much more. Often its not a stranger and not in some alley or quiet street or park. Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) happens in places a child should feel safe: the home, school, clubs are places where some of the very people we should be able to trust fail so many children.
Late last evening I read something that angered me. It seems the governments much admired £4.85 million earmarked for victims of CSA didn't get to many actual CSA charities it went here and there much of it to Rape Crisis Groups and I have a problem with that.
As the figures were mentioned on Twitter a member or supporter of Rape Crisis appeared and said to the effect Why not, what's in a name?
There's a great deal in a name, most adult rapes fall into three or four categories 1) date rape 2) domestic abuse) 3) Someone we know 4) A stranger we encounter outside our home or a home invader. There are variations but those are the main groups rapists fall into. And, they have very little to do with CSA To deal with the trauma of CSA the treatment has to be far more in depth and specialised than that provided for victims of adult rape.
Child sexual abuse is more likely to be long term rather than a sudden abduction. Its more likely to be a family member, a close friend of the family or someone automatically respected by parents like a teacher or a coach. All rape involves emotional psychological and mental damage but in every case the harm done to children has to be much greater and longer lasting than the harm done to adults. Adults have much more experience of life and trust and much more sexual experience, maybe domestic abuse is the closest comparison but again its done to an adult by someone they know and have very much more experience of than a child possibly could. To me it seems the connection between CSA and adult rape is very thin and assuming such a connection could do more harm than good to the child victim even if the child victim is an adult when they receive counseling.
Rape Crisis Groups are good for women but are they as good even for men? How many men rape victims go to or even contact Rape Crisis groups the very name sounds female and whilst in time men may find it easier to talk to women about rape I believe it does take time.
For children it must be almost unimaginable to even consider rape crisis as an option. So I think names do matter and I think specialist professional CSA counselors should have got the bulk of the funding. I also think that the main reason child sexual abuse survivor groups didn't get the funding is a) controversy surrounding some groups and b) the good counseling groups won't necessarily toe the establishment line, why would they most were founded because of the lack of appropriate counseling and total lack of establishment support for CSA victims.
So for the most part the government have given a lot of money to established groups who they know will behave in a satisfactory manner which means stay within government guide lines and most important of all be the soul of discretion.
None of which is necessarily in the best interest of child victims.
I've said before that counseling irritates me much of it is new, lacks proper training and like so many charitable organisations almost all of it is money orientated. Not too long ago CSA was rarely if ever mentioned there seemed to be an unwritten law, a taboo about even admitting it happened. The first chink of light was I think the exposure of child abusing priests and nuns in the Roman Catholic Church in the USA and Ireland, slowly after that the floodgates began to open. At which point CSA became a subject of financial interest to some groups.
I think names matter specialist child sexual abuse counselors are essential, Money allocated for victims of child sexual abuse should only go to qualified professional specialist child sexual abuse counselors if not then yet again children will lose.
This is just my opinion and I'm no expert but I do think its an important subject because it maybe that this time not all the money allocated to victims of CSA has gone to them, much of it may well be used to provide counseling therapy for adult victims of rape which is in one way a good thing but in another more important way its very bad.
Late last evening I read something that angered me. It seems the governments much admired £4.85 million earmarked for victims of CSA didn't get to many actual CSA charities it went here and there much of it to Rape Crisis Groups and I have a problem with that.
As the figures were mentioned on Twitter a member or supporter of Rape Crisis appeared and said to the effect Why not, what's in a name?
There's a great deal in a name, most adult rapes fall into three or four categories 1) date rape 2) domestic abuse) 3) Someone we know 4) A stranger we encounter outside our home or a home invader. There are variations but those are the main groups rapists fall into. And, they have very little to do with CSA To deal with the trauma of CSA the treatment has to be far more in depth and specialised than that provided for victims of adult rape.
Child sexual abuse is more likely to be long term rather than a sudden abduction. Its more likely to be a family member, a close friend of the family or someone automatically respected by parents like a teacher or a coach. All rape involves emotional psychological and mental damage but in every case the harm done to children has to be much greater and longer lasting than the harm done to adults. Adults have much more experience of life and trust and much more sexual experience, maybe domestic abuse is the closest comparison but again its done to an adult by someone they know and have very much more experience of than a child possibly could. To me it seems the connection between CSA and adult rape is very thin and assuming such a connection could do more harm than good to the child victim even if the child victim is an adult when they receive counseling.
Rape Crisis Groups are good for women but are they as good even for men? How many men rape victims go to or even contact Rape Crisis groups the very name sounds female and whilst in time men may find it easier to talk to women about rape I believe it does take time.
So for the most part the government have given a lot of money to established groups who they know will behave in a satisfactory manner which means stay within government guide lines and most important of all be the soul of discretion.
None of which is necessarily in the best interest of child victims.
I've said before that counseling irritates me much of it is new, lacks proper training and like so many charitable organisations almost all of it is money orientated. Not too long ago CSA was rarely if ever mentioned there seemed to be an unwritten law, a taboo about even admitting it happened. The first chink of light was I think the exposure of child abusing priests and nuns in the Roman Catholic Church in the USA and Ireland, slowly after that the floodgates began to open. At which point CSA became a subject of financial interest to some groups.
I think names matter specialist child sexual abuse counselors are essential, Money allocated for victims of child sexual abuse should only go to qualified professional specialist child sexual abuse counselors if not then yet again children will lose.
This is just my opinion and I'm no expert but I do think its an important subject because it maybe that this time not all the money allocated to victims of CSA has gone to them, much of it may well be used to provide counseling therapy for adult victims of rape which is in one way a good thing but in another more important way its very bad.
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