Archive Home Page CBardC. Excellent point. This is what the researchers consider factors that could inhibit reporting, though they're difficlult to examine in any quantitative manner. Fear, shame, and guilt (abused kids often feel they were to blame for their misfortune, often because they were told they were) are the obvious ones. Fear of being considered homosexual is still a strong stigma. It's a inhibiter of reporting, particularily among young males.
Young4good, I didn't mean to sidstep your observation, I just thought some debris needed to be cleared from the deck. The statistics show that there is a slightly higher incidence of sexual abuse among gay and lesbian people, one theory being that this might be because we are more vulnerable. Various sexual behaviors are also indicated as coping mechanisms, so it is clear that there are people whose sexual "behaviors" are out of sync with their own sexual "orientation". But then no one among the folks who think this is the most important aspect of the abuse issue consider the opposite side of the coin, the large numbers of people forced in shame and self hatred by the larger society to bury their own healthy gay orientation and live a lie.
The coping mechnisms of childhood sexual abuse are extremely varied and complicated. Almost all child abuse leaves a person vulnerable to both overt and subtle psychological manipulation. Many advertisers take advantage of these things. I have heard that there are US government security clearances require that a person have no more that three days that can't be accounted for. The relegation of souls into hell and the possesion of minds is now a matter of science as much as religion. The techniques of mind control are well known and have been practiced by religions, governments, and mafia types as well. I don't know if they knew why in a larger context they were doing these things, or that the end result would be a complete reversal of fortunes. But enough of my schizophrenic conspiracy theories, they aren't nearly as important as creating a foundation for recovery.
I recommend Lew's book, because he put's a very human face on the issues. The essay by Keith near the beginning of the book (a straight man abused by his mother) is one of the most powerful essays on the subject that I have ever read. It was the cornerstone of my own recovery process which on a personal level was extrordinarily rapid. From Keith's statement:
"I utterly reject the actions of those who forced me to drink at the trough of human experience, wanting humiliation to mark me forevever so that they would never have to answer for or explain their actions. Instead, they saw in my suffering and confusion and easy way out of their guilt, or even a justification of their violence and cowardice"
"Today I am not silent. Today I write with rage that speaks in a human voice of all the things that were forced on me and all the things that were denied me. To my question, who gave my abusers the right to make me suffer the way I did, I answer back that human beings only have the right to love each other and care for each other"