April is National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. Some thoughts on the issue today from Jim Daly of Focus on the Family.
Daly writes, “The statistics are heartbreaking: 1 in 4 girls will be sexually abused before her eighteenth birthday. For boys, the number is 1 in 6.
Sexual abuse isn’t an easy conversation, but the information we have to share with parents – “Protecting Your Child from Sexual Abuse” can help your children avoid becoming part of the disturbing statistics.
An overwhelming percentage of abuse – close to 90 percent – comes from someone the child knows and trusts, like a family friend or someone from within the family itself. Strangers account for a small percentage of sexual abuse.
RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, reports that Sexual violence affects nearly every household in America. Every 98 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted, and every eight minutes a child is sexually abused.
Perpetrators of sexual violence are often serial criminals. Out of every 1,000 suspected rape perpetrators referred to prosecutors, 370 have at least one prior felony conviction, including 100 who have five or more.
Last week, President Trump signed a bill to combat sex trafficking. The law, which passed Congress with near unanimous bipartisan support, will let state law enforcement officials pursue websites that knowingly host sex trafficking content, and allow victims to sue such sites for damages.