It is frightening to realize how widespread sexual abuse is in our society and yet how strong the denial of it is.1 “Don’t waste your time talking about what an aberration it is and how unlikely it is — just get to the place where you understand that one of the things humans do is have sexual contact with children,” says [Gavin] de Becker, author of Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane).2 Sex with children is a crime. It has long been illegal for adults to have sex with children in the U.S. But [thanks to a 1994 federal law, it is also] illegal for Americans to travel overseas to have sex with children under 18.3
Child sexual abuse first became an issue when Freud (pic) theorized that most cases of hysteria in women have been caused by “premature sexual experiences” [Sigmund Freud, “The Aetiology of Hysteria,” 1896]. Studies on child molestation began in the 1920s while the first national estimate of cases came out in 1948. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was enforced in 1974 along with the creation of the National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect. The National Child Abuse Coalition was formed in 1979 to pressure the congress to pass and im
As to the gender of the victims, Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") personnel estimate that over 50% of all child pornography seized in the United States depicts boys rather than girls. Canadian Customs puts that figure at 75% for Canada.… In contrast, in Japan, it is female minors that are predominantly exploited in pornographic material.35
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