Horrors of Abuse Resound Past Trials

Courier-Journal
June 26, 2012

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120626/OPINION01/306260006/Editorial-Horrors-abuse-resound-past-trials?nclick_check=1

Do not think that the guilty verdicts handed down in Pennsylvania last Friday have little or nothing to do with anyone here.

Just because they dealt with a Roman Catholic official in Philadelphia who was convicted of child endangerment for his role in moving around predatory priests without informing the public of the danger that awaited in their churches, and with a serial molester who used his Penn State coaching credentials and his community standing as a “saint” who worked with at-risk kids to shield his crimes, doesn’t mean those horrors are somehow removed from us.

It is true that Monsignor William Lynn, who could spend up to seven years in prison, and former football coach Jerry Sandusky, who faces more than 400 years behind bars, were convicted of crimes they committed in a different state, and held accountable by juries of their peers.

But both defendants and what landed them in court illustrate unthinkable horrors that are visited on children throughout the country, including those in our own communities.

The young people who were caught in the crimes that made up the Lynn and Sandusky cases are fortunate in one regard only: Someone heard them, someone believed them, someone acted in their behalf. In too many instances, that is not how these things go.

As many as one in four girls, and one in six boys, are sexually abused by the time they are 18.

It is believed that the majority of children who are sexually abused don’t tell anyone about it.

The overwhelming majority of sexually abused children are abused by someone they know and trust.

Aside from physical symptoms such as pain or injury in the mouth or private parts, sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy, the effects of sexual abuse can include depression, suicide, self-mutilation, fear of touch or closeness, self-esteem problems, substance abuse, and behavioral and school disruptions.

It is impossible to measure the damage done to untold children, and in the adults those children become, in a crime whose frequency of commission can only be guessed at.

As one of the accusers in the Monsignor Lynn trial put it, “I can’t explain the pain, because I’m still trying to figure it out today, but I have an emptiness where my soul should be.”

The high-profile cases in Pennsylvania, the ones concluded with guilty verdicts last week, ought to evoke a similar reaction in those who consider themselves removed from those horrors.

How can there be anything but emptiness where a soul should be in the face of the utter failure of responsible people and trusted institutions to protect children from the most heinous of acts?

Given the statistics, how can we be sure that we, or our institutions, would act any differently?

That is our shared horror.