Child Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse has been occurring from time to time in our world today. It is one of the many dark sides of humankind although how civilized we think we are. It is believed that child sexual abuse happens in all races, ethnics, social groups and religious backgrounds. The average age of a child being sexually abused is between nine and eleven. Although the number of cases of child sexual abuse reported has declined considerably since the 1990s, the number is still far from comforting. In the United States of America alone, one in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused. This leads to approximately 1.3 million victims in US per year, even so, only a mere 10% of the cases were officially reported. Even though Malaysia does not have as many cases of child sexual abuse as the United States, we should not underestimate this vile act because we do not know what may be in store for us in the future. Acts that are considered child sexual abuse are fondling the children’s genitals or making the child touch the adults’ genitals and the worst of all, inserting a penis or any objects into a child’s anus or vagina. Besides that, exposing a child to pornography or sexual intercourse can also be considered visual sexual abuse of the child. Child sexual abuse are considered to be crueler than murder my some extremist, according to their point of view, sexually abusing a child will not only cause physical harm to them, but will also damage them mentally and emotionally. The horrifying memory will forever be etched into their brains for the rest of their lives. About two thirds of the abusers are related to the child and most abusers are men (National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse, 1993). This means most abusers are family members, friends, relatives or acquaintances of the victims. Since it is someone the children knows, it is easy for the abuser to gain the trust of the child. Children are also taught to obey the adults and not question their authority. They