Epidemic of Abuse Ends with You

Original link: Survivors of Penn State Appalled by Student Protest
By Madison Park, CNN,  Fri November 11, 2011

Penn state – it’s time for America to put an end to abuse.

Penn state isn’t the problem – it’s all of us.

It’s not whether Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky did or didn’t rape young boys over 15 years; it’s why the spotlight needs to shine on a prominent person before anyone does anything about it.

A quarter of America’s children suffer sexual abuse before they reach the age of 18. Sure, some of them fall victim to coaches, some even to famous coaches, others to priests but 7 out of 10 cases of child sexual abuse happen far closer to home.

70% of child sexual abuse is incest and not surprisingly nobody talks about that horror. Every day hundreds of children suffer sexual abuse. Most of them suffer abuse from someone in their families–and the shame of that affects us all–but we’re not talking about it.

Sexual abuse causes lifetime injury to victims and costs the nation $500 Billion each and every year, according to Miller TR, Fisher DA, Cohen MA in Pediatrics (2001). To put that in perspective, the Iraq war has cost the United States $500 billion over 5 years, or $100 billion a year. So as taxpayers, our bill for child sexual abuse comes to the equivalent of funding 5 Iraq wars every year. However, we haven’t declared war on abuse; we’ve come to accept it and instead wage war on its symptoms such as our failed wars on drugs and prostitution.

Consider these facts:

• 80% of substance abusers suffered abuse as children and we spend $160 Billion a year fighting the supply of drugs but very little in stopping the abuse that causes the demand for them.
• 95% of prostitutes suffer abuse as children. People sell their bodies and souls because they feel they have nothing else to offer. Yet we invest so many dollars in trying to keep prostitutes off the streets that there are reality TV shows that cover it.
• 85% of prisoners suffered abuse as children. We incarcerate a higher percentage of our population than any other country, but it hasn’t made us any safer because prison does not stop abuse.

Recent medical studies show that abuse survivors develop cancer, heart disease, diabetes and HIV at much higher rates than the general population.

Abuse breeds abuse through a cycle of violence.

Abuse lies at the heart of America’s problems and the time has come for America to stop abuse.

Together with the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence across the lifespan (npeiv.org) we are calling on all survivors, advocates and organizations to work collaboratively with us to end this scourge.

Andrew Willis is a co-founder and CEO of the Stop Abuse Campaign