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THE ECONOMIC AND Social Research Institute (ESRI) has just published a new study into the effect of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) on the long-term economic consequences for individuals affected, in terms of lower attachment to the labour market and/or lower incomes. The study found that:
5.6% of men and 6.7% cent of women in the study said that they had experienced CSA. Looking at people aged 50 to 64, 17% of male and 14 percent of female survivors of CSA were out of the labour force as a result of being sick or permanently disabled. (The corresponding figures for those who had not experienced CSA were 8 and 6% cent respectively.)
The ESRI figures on the incidence of CSA in Ireland are consistent with the 2002 Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland (SAVI) Report. Whereas the ESRI study used a single question about sexual abuse “Before you were 18 years were you ever sexually abused?”, the SAVI Report looked at the incidence of twelve different forms of abuse ranging from penetrative abuse to non-contact abuse such as being exposed by an adult to pornography. The SAVI study found that:
More than four in ten (42%) of women reported some form of sexual abuse or assault in their lifetime. The most serious form of abuse, penetrative abuse, was experienced by 10% of women. Attempted penetration or contact abuse was experienced by 21%, with a further 10% experiencing non-contact abuse.
The long-term psychological consequences of abuse
While the recent ESRI study looked at the economic consequences of child sexual abuse, the SAVI study highlighted the long-term psychological consequences: those who had experienced attempted or actual penetrative sexual abuse were eight times more likely to have been an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital than those who had not been abused.
The SAVI Report also highlighted the fact that the occurrence of CSA is very much under-reported to the authorities. Almost half of those who disclosed experiences of sexual violence in this study reported that they had never previously disclosed that abuse to others, and just 7.8% of women had reported their experiences to the gardaí. Only half of those who reported to the gardaí were satisfied overall with the service they received.
Clearly both studies show that CSA is a major social problem and SAVI shows that it is grossly under-reported. Unbelievably 21% of those who experienced penetrative abuse or rape as a child, and 12% of those who suffered rape as an adult, did not report the crime to the gardaí. This raises some very serious questions.
Questionable outcomes in sexual assault cases
Could it be that our criminal justice system has a part to play in this under-reporting of a very serious crime? It is possible that a contributing factor to this is that, over the years, there have been a number of high-profile sex related cases with questionable outcomes which have been brought to the attention of the public.
One most recent examples of this was the case of the businessman Anthony Lyons, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in Dublin. The judge sentenced the Lyons to five years in prison but suspended most of the sentence, with Lyons initially serving just six months in prison. The DPP wisely appealed this decision and the Court of Criminal Appeal increased the time to be served in prison by Lyons to two-and-a-half years. The decision by the original judge to suspend most of the sentence trivialised the effect of the trauma experienced by the young woman and, also, sent out a message that if a sex offender is well-off, their money could be used to avoid an appropriate-to-the-crime jail sentence. This case has much in common with the recent Graham Griffin, Martin Quigley and Aidan Farrington cases.
Even more recent was the case of a seven-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by her stepfather’s brother, John Carvin. The offender was found guilty by a jury of his peers and the judge in the case sentenced the criminal to three years but suspended the sentence in full for three years so that the offender would serve no time in prison.
The decisions in these cases are bizarre when viewed from a psychotherapeutic perspective. The eminent Jungian psychoanalyst Donald Kalsched had this to say about the effect of childhood trauma:
Traumatised children strive to understand why they are being neglected, abused or shamed, and nearly every traumatised child ends up believing that s/he is in pain because s/he is fundamentally at fault… In terms of the psyche, trauma is any experience that causes unbearable pain or anxiety when a child’s sense of self is repeatedly threatened the child is traumatised. This can happen through sexual or physical abuse.
A lack of faith in our justice system
These cases are not by any means exceptions to the rule in our criminal courts nor are such cases only of recent origin, as the 2004 Tim Allen case showed. Allen was found guilty of downloading child pornography and sentenced to 240 hours of community service by the judge. Allen paid €40,000 to a charity. Yet if Allen had been before an English court for the same crime he would have been sentenced to five years in prison, according to one newspaper report.
The despicable aspect of child pornography cases is that they involve many children being forced to engage in sex acts with other children or adults. The children involved are frequently from developing countries and, because of this, these victims cannot give evidence in the cases involving them – making it easy to morally disengage from the awful horror of what the children suffer, if one chooses to.
Could it be that one of the reasons that so much CSA goes unreported is that victims of sexual abuse or rape do not trust our criminal justice system? Certainly SAVI found that women were not likely to report the CSA because they felt ashamed, blamed themselves or feared family reactions and publicity. A feeling that the Gardaí “couldn’t do anything to help” was another common reason given for not reporting the crime by those who were raped or abused. Is it any wonder that this happens when the leniency shown by some judges in high profile sex crime cases is taken into account, as well as the extensive media accounts of the very negative effect of this judicial leniency on the female victims and the implied message which that sends to the general public?
In spite of the ESRI and SAVI reports it can be easily argued that our courts are not doing much to help reduce the high level of CSA in Ireland if the cases highlighted above are anything to go by.
Gerry Fahey is an occupational psychologist and a graduate of TCD and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
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The fact that a huge amount of sexual abuse goes on within families makes it very difficult for people to come forward. The issue tears families apart. Often the victim is further ostracised and huge pressure applied from within not to report.
Aside from the myriad of other reasons victims do not come forward, why should they trust the criminal justice system? A two and a half year sentence, that is not suspended, still trivialises the impact of childhood sexual abuse on the victims.
Apologies, I should have said any type of sexual abuse for the case mentioned*
@D McLT
That sentence is still imprisonment. Furthermore, the perpetrator who receives that sentence has a criminal record for the rest of his life, which means that he cannot enter the US or Australia, and has to register as a sex offender. Not to mention the fact that the perpetrator is shunned by people who previously respected him.
I don’t think that any of it is enough. Not getting into the US or Australia should be the least of a convicted sex offenders worries. There’s so much that I could say on this. The victims that are not believed, the cases that are not prosecuted at all, the devastation that sexual abuse causes …… those that are actually found guilty deserve much tougher sentences. In my opinion.
” the perpetrator who receives that sentence has a criminal record for the rest of his life, which means that he cannot enter the US or Australia, and has to register as a sex offender. Not to mention the fact that the perpetrator is shunned by people who previously respected him.”
Oh no! I feel terrible for them….. NOT. It’s a well known fact that the justice system is soft on sex offenders in this country and in the UK. They can live wherever they like and neighbours arent informed about them living next door bc the sex offender register is not public.
@Meow
I’ve no sympathy for perpetrators of child sex abuse. There are several areas of employment for which sex offenders are ineligible. There always will be bad people out there. It’s up to parents to keep their children safe. They cannot expect the State to everything for them.
@D McLt
There was a time when victims were not listened to but the justice system has improved since the revelation about Savile. It must be borne in mind that, whenever an allegation is made, we don’t know whether or not the allegation is true unless there is evidence that corroborates it. Not all allegations are true.
@ ciaran masterson……”its up to parents to keep their children safe” what it is the parents that are doing the abusing??
This is about little children being sexually abused and youre concerned for the rapists employability and respect from their peers? Really? Would you employ or respect a person who violates a child?
@Sam Bartell
You’re taking my comment out of context.
I don’t care about rapists. I’m just saying that the effects of a criminal record mean that the idea that sex offenders get off lightly is not true.
@Ann Glasgow
I wasn’t referring to child sexual abuse that is perpetrated by relatives of the victims.
I think the fear of not being believed must play a huge part, to have such a weight on you n thinking that no one will believe your little voice over that of an uncle,aunt, teacher, priest,father. To admit your deepest, darkest secret to someone you trust n to see in their eyes that they doubt you.
Plus it’s so personal n deeply painful that to say it out loud is to admit it to yourself aswell that you are a victim, that these awful things really did happen, if you say it out loud you can’t go back, if your believed,you have to relive it over n over again, reveal those details to another person who you didn’t know ten mins ago and tell them what they did to you, what you “let” happen, go to court relive it again to an audience. Sexual abuse doesn’t just take away childhood and innocents, it takes away the life that that child should of had.
its also hard to admit to ones self that the people that you trusted could do those things to you! also very difficult to get such parents to actually admit what they have done
Once you’ve had a serious situation that you’ve no control over, you feel useless because you are helpless . This in turn lowers self esteem so you will rationalise the situation, ie, I’m not the only one, or, Others may not believe me etc.
Well all I can say is that I didn’t report a rape that happened me 20 years ago. I was 18 so I was an adult. I felt it was my fault although I didn’t know what I had done wrong. The GP I saw after it blamed me too so that made it worse. I felt ashamed so I didn’t report it. I knew there would be no proper punishment for the rapist even if it got to court. There can be false allegations also and they wrongly in my opinion go unpunished. That makes it even harder for real victims of sexual violence. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to put themselves through further trauma of reporting it unless to protect others from the perpetrator. It destroyed my life. Left suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety and more than anything a fear of intimacy. I find it almost impossible to trust anyone. I love men but that fear never left so I know that for as long as I survive I will have to do so alone. I got the life sentence.
As a survivor of abuse (3 different traumas, one within the family, a neighbor and a rape in late teens I can only speak from my perspective, reading this made me feel sick to my stomach because when you are silenced by people who are supposed to protect you (ie parents) you begin to believe that its your fault, that somehow your behavior contributed to this ( even though I was 7 years of age, then 14 ) with the childhood traumas.
When your mother tells you to shush shush when you are telling her about the abuse and that ;” it would kill’ your aunt if she found out that her husband was an abuser, you shut down and try to pretend it didn’t happen, then something else happened to me called ‘dissociative disorder’ when you daydream your life away to ‘protect yourself’ from being hurt again, never living in the moment, always believing other people are far superior to you, and that your feelings and opinions DO NOT COUNT- Because everyone else is more important than you- That is the message I was given when the abuse was invalidated so many times.
When you eventually do get the courage to question what happened to you the family shun you and shame you for speaking out because somehow then ‘it ruins the perpetrators happy little bubble of pretense’ and you are to blame for destroying the family. WARPED, MESSED UP, VICTIM BLAMING/SHAMING behavior.
The heading of this article is also very offensive IMO ”Why are so many victims of child sexual abuse reluctant to report it?”
RELUCTANT? I was screaming from inside for someone to help me, NOBODY CARED, NOBODY LISTENED, and as an adult the lack of confidence in myself to do anything bar live in survival mode and TRY to make my parents somehow validate what happened to me (that never happened), SO PLEASE JOURNAL.IE CHANGE THE HEADING – from reluctant to unsupported/silenced and shamed to secrecy!
The protection of the perpetrator and withholding an outer image of perfection was more important and I was loyal to my ‘family’ when though they were not loyal to me, I kept quiet for years until my pain and suffering was destroying me and health issues forced me to speak up with the support of a good therapist who validated my experiences.
The fear of betraying my parents and family was why I was so reluctant and also the fear of rejection- and when it was reported that’s what happened – I was rejected and shamed. It took almost 25 years for me to speak up, thats how powerful the family dynamics of silence /blame and shame is!
The word reluctant does not sit well with me. ….
Yes, I totally agree with you as a veteran of child sex abuse too.
The onus is being placed on the victim in the title.??
Same happens in female DV cases- why did she this and that instead of why did s/he commit these crimes?
Yes same here shamed into silence on abuse and DV. That is the good old RC way.
Perpetrators all protected in my case too.
Police -” do you realise you are about to destroy a man life here???” and his family?
Nothing about me the victim.
It has to be said here too that in DV child abuse cases most solicitors advise victims not to dare tell the judge.?
I asked why? Exact words ” Jesus Christ the judges are sick to fuc*ing death of hearing about DV and child sexual abuse. It pisses them right off and they will take your kids and punish you in other ways etc”
Believe me this did happen and does happen in Ireland and all over the post colonial countries.
So we do not speak out because so called professionals are pro perpetrators just like the old Adam and Eve days- its always the victims fault. Them children of Eve ill Eve are all liars. And yet statistics show less then 2% of child victims lie.
@Truth Time
I am very sorry that this crime was committed against you. Did all of your relatives reject you? It is very sad that there have been some parents who, although not sexually or physically abusive towards their children, don’t care about their children’s emotional well-being. I’m also aware of another prominent incidence of rejection of children, especially daughters, by their parents – the sending of young women to Magdalene laundries.
Do you have siblings? If you do, then surely the fact that they were also children when this crime was committed against you and the greater public awareness of child abuse means that they wouldn’t reject you. Does it not?
It seems that we have a half dozen or so paedophile excusers ticking red thumbs. That’s very sad as they are justifying crimes against the most vulnerable.
A major deterrent factor is society’s negative attitude to the revelation if child sexual abuse, the dark and uncomfortable secret.
The revelation if child sexual abuse potentially places the devastated victim in a position of potential challenge to the power structures and power institutions in Irish society. These include the institutions of the Roman Catholic Church, An Garda Siochana, the legal and judicial professions, the local community and the Roman Catholic Church inspired and influenced values of Irish society.
Indeed, the attitude to victims is so hostile that it is a wonder that any victims report the appalling crimes perpetrated against them.
So much for good Catholic Ireland!
The length of time it generally takes a victim to report CSA is 30 years and going through the system of getting to court to finally try and get justice is harrowing. It is a very slow process taking a couple of years and often the perpetrator gets a suspended sentence. This is a further crime on the survivor when the pervert pleads guilty at the beginning. It does not make sense to the victim.
Even when a sentence is handed down the thought of the pervert being out in a short time adds insult to injury. The survivor never fully feels as if justice is served and the pervert is seen as if they they have paid a full price for their vile crimes and are out again to go and do what ever they can get away with. They rarely accept treatment and no notice is given to neighbours of the newly released threat.
The fact that they served their time is given priority and in cases like these that is not a form of justice. They can’t travel to other countries is proper and correct. This crime is a crime against children and as adults these survivors often develop lifelong social anxiety s that keep them prisoners in their own homes.
Where is the justice here.
Yes there is a term now – called legal abuse syndrome Complex PTSD where the system actually abuses the victim over and over.
We see it in the movie Devils Advocate.
Also
http://lvaallc.org/whatislegalabusesyndrome.htm
“LEGAL ABUSE SYNDROME (LAS) is a form of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is a psychic injury, not a mental illness. It is a personal injury that develops in individuals assaulted by ethical violations, legal abuses, betrayals, and fraud. Abuse of power and authority and a profound lack of accountability in our courts have become rampant, compounding an already stressful experience”
http://ancailinrua.com/2013/08/12/a-womans-worth-reporting-and-sentencing-of-violent-crimes-against-women/comment-page-1/#comment-285
A Woman’s Worth …. reporting and sentencing of violent crimes against women.
“In June 2013, Sheehan handed convicted rapist Niall Counihan of Longford a seven-year suspended sentence. His reasoning? Imprisonment would impose hardship on his family. Counihan – who his then 14-year-old victim claimed had shown no remorse since the crimes of rape and sexual assault were committed over 20 years ago – has two autistic children. Sheehan asserted that Counihan had “self-rehabilitated” in the meantime. “What he did to me has affected every aspect of my life, said his victim, “and it has left me with a pain, trauma, loss and sadness that I continue to feel every day”
Well worth a read as this lady uses many cases to outline why victims do not come forward.
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