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Feb 17, 2019 News
Sexual offending requires the offender to use charm and manipulation in order to lure a victim into a sexual relationship. While many view giving food to a child as a kind gesture, there are those who use this to lure children and teens into sexual abuse.
This was highlighted in a recently released report by Child Link Guyana titled, Cries in the Dark-Child Sex Abuse in Guyana Today. Under the heading, ‘How abusers gain compliance and enforce secrecy’, the report examined how abusers maintained sexual access to children and teens over time.
According to the report, in order to preserve their reputations, abusers pressure children to submit to repeated abuse and secrecy and that a wide range of tactics were reported by victims of child sex abuse.
“Sometimes abusers gave children gifts such as money, marijuana, food, chocolate, ice cream, clothes, or privileges such as getting their own way. Sometimes the abusers gave money and gifts to the child’s mother or other family members to gain access to the child,” the report says.
The report pointed out that all abusers threatened the children implicitly, by demonstrating their power in a variety of ways, and that some children reported that abusers also issued specific threats to make them comply with the abuse or keep it secret.
Some of them reported that abusers threatened to kill their mother and also threatened to kill them. One child admitted, “I was crying and screaming and he (abuser) raised his voice and said, “Shut your f&*%ing mouth before I kill you’.”
Others reported that abusers threatened to put them out and “threatened to take his hands and a big knife and dig out my inside.” Another reported, “My stepfather threatened to make the family unhappy”, while another said, “He said if I talk, he will tell people I have AIDS.”
According to the report, “Often the abusers gained compliance and secrecy by manipulating their young victims. One abuser told his seven-year-old victim that she liked his actions and that no one would believe her if she told them. Abusers also told victims that they would get into trouble or get a beating and their parents would be angry if they disclosed.”
It continued, “Some victims reported manipulation by abusers that made them feel “special” and like his “girlfriend” even when there was a difference in age of ten or more years.
Family, friends, community members, older peers at school, and even family members used the boyfriend/girlfriend approach to gain children’s compliance. Some children reported that they did feel like the abuser’s girlfriend, because they had become intimate, or had developed feelings for the person, or because she believed she loved him, or because he was nicer to her than most other people.”
However, the reported highlighted that some teens reported that they knew they were not the abuser’s girlfriend, because he was already married to, or dating another family member. One victim stated, “He is a big man and I am a little girl. Plus he’s got his wife, my aunt.”
Moreover, the report says that it is important to note that children who are afraid of a beating are unlikely to tell their parents about abuse, because they are afraid they will be further punished. Also, it noted that children who feel loved, appreciated and well cared-for at home may be less likely to succumb to an abuser’s seduction attempts.
Apart from the abovementioned gifts, threats and manipulation, children said they kept their abuse a secret because they feared the abuser, fear of being punished by a supportive mother or father, and because they thought the abuse was their fault.
Additionally, others related that they kept it a secret because they were afraid others would not believe them, scared others in the family and community would look at them differently and because “It felt good and I was scared of him.”
Nevertheless, the report said that others revealed their motivations for disclosing the abuse, and how others responded to this. A teen who was abused several times by her stepfather from age eight said, “I got tired of what he was doing to me and plus he was still beating my mother.” Another said, “My teacher forced me to tell about the abuse.”
“One girl who was raped by her 75-year-old grandfather told her grandmother, stepmother, aunt and father on the same day. One teen said she told her mother who did not believe her, and so she told her teacher who she is not sure believed her. She said she disclosed it because of the health and family life education topics in school,” the report stated.
Cries in the Dark-Child Sex Abuse in Guyana Today is based on a study of the first 338 reports of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) received by the Child Advocacy Centres (CACs) operated by ChildLinK in Guyana, as well as research interviews with teenage CSA victims and their supportive caretakers.
Among other things, it was noted in the report that many children reported abuse by more than one offender. Forty-two percent of the abusers were non-family members who were known to their victims, such as community members, family friends, or service providers and professionals such as teachers, pastors, or bus conductors.
Only one of the abusers mentioned in the 338 reports was a woman.
According to the report, in 2014, there were 3,883 reported cases of child abuse to the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA), 628 (16%) were child sexual abuse cases. In 2017, the CPA report reflected a total of 4,179 cases of abuse with 841 (20%) of those cases being child sexual abuse.
In a period of three years (2014-2017) there was an increase of 5% of reported child sexual abuse cases, the report says. At the end of June 2018, CPA recorded 481 cases of sexual abuse against children.
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