Child sex abuse: The last great taboo in American culture

For people who work to stop the sexual abuse of children, the horror of the allegations at Pennsylvania State University has offered something unexpected: opportunity.

The continuing national and international news coverage is fostering discussion of a disturbing, discomfiting topic that's often ignored, experts and advocates say.

"The window is open right now to have these conversations," said Pastor Aaron Anderson, a board member of Prevent Child Abuse Pennsylvania, based in Media. "But it will close because people will close their eyes to how horrific it is."

News about Penn State - coupled with a call to recognize child abuse as the nation's top public-health issue - dominates the front page of the PCAPA website.

The website of Lauren's Kids, a Florida awareness and legislation group, features a prominent photo of Joe Paterno, fired as coach of the Penn State football team after former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with abusing eight boys over 15 years.

Mission Kids, a Blue Bell agency that seeks to ease the criminal-justice process for abused children, has seized the moment by posting news and information on Facebook, Twitter, and the agency website, and by talking with members of the media.

"Child abuse is the last great taboo in American culture," said Abbie Newman, executive director of Mission Kids. "We talk about all other kinds of sex without hesitation."

But with child abuse, "the idea is so abhorrent that normal people don't want to see," she said. "It's a very ugly part of society that society is going to have to look at if we're going to stop it."

Penn State isn't the only school in trouble. Syracuse University fired longtime basketball associate head coach Bernie Fine over allegations of child molestation.

Groups such as PCAPA want to see child abuse combated like other public-health issues - not as a shameful, hidden subject. They believe they can reduce the incidence of abuse in the same way other, earlier campaigns resulted in more people wearing seat belts and fewer smoking tobacco.

"The Penn State, and now Bernie Fine, story have taken the conversation about child abuse out of the closet," said psychotherapist Kathy Seifert, executive director of Eastern Shore Psychological Services in Maryland. "It's broken our denial about how famous and revered people cannot possibly be offenders."

The good news is the numbers already are down, dropping during the last 20 years as the result of innovative programming and funding, health authorities say. The bad news is the most recent government figures show 65,964 children were abused in 2009.

That's roughly the population of the city of Passaic, N.J.

In Pennsylvania, there were 2,512 reports of abuse, in New Jersey 899. Texas led the nation with 6,306.

The cost? Astronomical. A 2007 study by researchers Ching-Tung Wang and John Holton conservatively estimated the cost of child abuse and neglect, including sexual abuse, at $104 billion a year. That includes direct costs such as hospitalization and mental-health care, and indirect costs such as delinquency and lost productivity.

Those figures don't include a cost the authors deemed incalculable: the pain, suffering, and lower quality of life that victims endure. Children don't recover from sexual abuse the way they might heal from an illness or a broken bone, authorities say. The repercussions can be lifelong.

A large, ongoing study by the Kaiser Permanente Group and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that victims of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, neglect, and those in families where a member was mentally ill, addicted, or imprisoned were far more likely to engage in or suffer from a variety of illnesses and conditions: to smoke, inject street drugs, contract sexually transmitted diseases, become depressed, suffer heart illness, or have shortened life expectancy.

"There are many groups addressing this issue," said Lisa Smith, an assistant professor at the Brooklyn Law School, and a former Kings County executive assistant district attorney for domestic violence, sex crimes, and child abuse. "But the problem of adults failing to report when they know abuse is occurring is unfortunately something we still see all the time, and very much a part of what happened at both Penn State and Syracuse."

Paterno was fired after telling higher-ups - but taking no further action - about an allegation against Sandusky. University president Graham B. Spanier was ousted, and two administrators face criminal charges. An assistant football coach was placed on leave.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to bring light to these issues and make children a priority, make prevention a priority," said Maria McColgan, medical director of the Child Protection Program at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and a board member at PCAPA. "Everyone has a role in preventing child abuse. . . . When you see something that's concerning, don't ignore it. Act on it."

Anderson, pastor at City Church York, in York, Pa., traveled to Penn State on Nov. 12 to support students who were distributing pamphlets, wristbands, and ribbons before the football game against Nebraska.

"Our goal is to raise awareness of child abuse so we can stop it before it ever happens," he said in a recent interview. "We're looking for communities to have conversations about how we protect children and how we have schools and homes that are safe."

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