http://www.alternet.org/stories/46238/
January 7, 2007 AlterNet
Transforming Fear into Power: The Politicization of Child Sexual Abuse By Ingrid Drake
<snip>
Yet those most impacted by child sexual abuse -- survivors, their
supporters, and those who work with perpetrators -- are critical of
these new public policies, saying they do little to address the
enormous problem. The United Nations reported last year that 150
million girls are sexually abused each year, (14 percent of the
planet's child population), as well as seven percent of boys.
Largely ignored by both the mainstream and progressive media, a
grassroots movement is empowering communities to prevent and respond
to child sexual abuse (CSA), while holding perpetrators accountable.
Facing Our Own Monsters
Articulate, passionate, and regarded by her peers as an effective
advocate, Gianna Gariglietti, Executive Director of Citizens Against
Sexual Assault (CASA) in Harrisonburg, Virginia, was invited to join a
Task Force for developing the state's sexual violence prevention
strategy.
As part of her training, Gariglietti was asked to attend a speech by a
man who sexually abused children 20 years ago. "I didn't want to do
it," recalled the counselor who has provided services to child and
adult survivors of sexual violence for years. "I just thought, ugh."
Gariglietti pulled along a co-worker and attended the workshop, which
ended up dramatically changing the way CASA did its work. "It was an
unbelievable experience ... hearing offenders, who are in recovery
say, 'I didn't want to do this, I wanted some help. When someone
called me out on my behavior, I was relieved,'" recalls Gariglietti,
the mother of a young son.
For years, CASA's staff had responded to phone inquiries for help from
perpetrators, or potential perpetrators, with a quick and cold, "I'm
sorry, we don't do that here. Good bye." After the conference, and a
partnership with conference sponsor Stop it Now!, a national
prevention organization, CASA became more aware of services for
perpetrators. "Now we're more likely to say, 'We don't do that here,
but here are some resources that you can turn to,'" explains
Gariglietti.
The MA-based Stop it Now! has been working for years to dispel what it
considers the dangerous practice of demonizing child sex offenders.
"The stark truth is that more often than not, people who sexually
abuse children really are 'nice people' who commit monstrous acts,"
reads one of its monthly newsletters. "Our wish to place them squarely
in one camp or the other is perhaps the greatest single barrier that
prevents us from recognizing the behaviors that lead to sexual abuse."
CASA, a nine person organization serving Central Virginia, is now in
partnership with the Virginia Department of Heath, which identified
CSA as a statewide public health crisis after finding 1 in 4 women and
1 in 5 men have been victims of child sexual assault.
From its office in a red brick building, nestled in the Shenandoah
Mountain valley, CASA's programming more closely reflects the
realities of CSA: young people under 18 years of age perpetrate 29
percent of assaults; and almost half of the perpetrators were
identified as family members, and only 10 percent were strangers.
CASA is doing more to counsel families where one child is victim and
another child is a perpetrator, a key priority for many who know the
issue well.
"There is a lot of attention on 'the sicko,' and we do not often deal
when he is one of us," says Aishah Shahidah Simmons, who recently
produced the documentary film NO! about African American women's
experience with sexual violence. "It's not talked about in mainstream
press, even in alternative press ... about what to do when it's your
brother."
Rest (and there's considerably more) at: http://www.alternet.org/stories/46238/
The author also lists a link to an hour long documentary she made on the subject: http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/136999/index.php