Types of Maryland Sexual Abuse Claims
If you are a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, chances are the trauma you suffered has affected your life physically, emotionally, spiritually, and in many more ways. Pediatric sexual abuse is any form of indecency, sexual contact, and/or sexual harm done to anyone under the age of 18. While all survivors will suffer some form of traumatic effects resulting from these violations of their trust and their person, male survivors face unique challenges because of masculine stereotypes. Shocking to many is that 96 percent of perpetrators against boys and girls are men.
The signs and symptoms of childhood sexual abuse can include but are not limited to:
Aggressive behavior (acting out)
Anxiety
Bedwetting
Being afraid of showering, bathing, and/or changing clothes
Depression
Drug or alcohol abuse
Eating disorders
Excessive risk taking
Fear of visiting the facility where the abuse occurred or around the individual perpetrator
Inability to maintain normal intimate relations
Nightmares and sleep disturbances such as insomnia
Obsessive behavior
Self-harm
Sudden changes in behavior
Unexplained bruising or other physical injuries
The targeting of children by adult predators in positions of power can happen in a variety of settings where children should feel safe, including:
Healthcare
Patients and their families put complete trust in medical providers to take care of them and help them get better. Despite the strict prohibition against all forms of sexual relations between physicians and their patients, some medical providers cross the line and abuse patients sexually. Sexual abuse of minors in a healthcare setting is never the patient’s fault; and, it can happen to those of any age and any gender at any time. While most healthcare providers are reputable and do not target children, some do, including pediatricians, therapists, home health aides, dentists, and more. The types of sexual misconduct that can occur include things like offering services or medication in exchange for sexual favors, watching a patient undress, touching a patient’s genitals if not needed for an exam or treatment, and/or sexual harassment. Any unwanted or non-consensual sexual act, including touching, kissing, touching of sex organs, is regarded as criminal conduct.
Sexual assault or abuse can leave a survivor physically injured, emotionally drained, and/or unsure of what to. There are people you can talk to who can help you figure out what steps you can take to bring your abuser to justice and seek potential financial compensation to help you get the help you need to recover.
Religious Institutions
Many of us look to our religious leaders and clergy as spiritual guides and pillars of our community. We trust them to help us with our faith and to give us advice about our lives. They are supposed to serve as examples of people living admirable lives dedicated to service. However, there have been countless violations of this trust by members of the clergy across all religious denominations. When religious leaders in positions of trust and power violate children, devastating lifelong consequences can follow for the survivors. While the most well-known example of this type of behavior is sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church, there have been sexual assaults by deacons, reverends, pastors, and other leaders of the many forms of Christianity, as well as by faith leaders of other religions.
In the case of the Catholic Church, the church governing bodies have had a long history of protecting clergy known to be sexually molesting minors and others in their communities. The Catholic Church has gone to great lengths to protect child-molesting priests from prosecution and for not doing enough to protect young parishioners from predators. And, states around the country have investigated or are now investigating dioceses and clergy members over allegations of institutional sexual abuse.
Youth Sports
For many young people, sports are a great way to make friends, stay healthy, and be a part of a team. When youth sports are a positive experience, they can help a child’s character develop; when a trusted coach, trainer, or other sports administrator betrays the innocence of a child in their care, this criminal behavior can permanently affect the quality of life of the victim. Unfortunately, for decades, youth sports organizations, coaches, and other trusted adults protected themselves and their financial bottom lines over the safety of young athletes, including turning a blind eye to youth sports sexual abuse.
Sexual abuse is rampant in youth sports and also goes significantly underreported. It impacts an estimated two to eight percent of all minor athletes and even more college athletes. Sports in which sexual abuse claims have been lodged have included but are not limited to gymnastics, cheerleading, figure skating, soccer, swimming, hockey, dance, horseback riding, wrestling, tennis, and more. Advocacy groups say abuse occurs in all sports. Despite the devastatingly widespread nature of these attacks of our young people, 93 percent of those who experience youth sports sexual abuse never report it and 90 percent know their perpetrator in some way. The data shows these traumatic experiences are sadly common in the sports sector, which is supposed to provide children with a positive and healthy space.
Camp
Many families choose to send their children to summer camps, whether day camp or sleepaway camp. Parents often pay hefty fees for this combination of childcare and summer fun, and most campers have a great experience; however, some camp staff members aren’t properly vetted and/or supervised and so they can and do target and harm the youth in their care. In fact, hundreds of reports of youth sexual abuse in summer camps were revealed in a national report published in 2018.
Summer camps provide distinct opportunities for predators to target, groom, and sexually assault children as they may be supervised by young, inexperienced, and poorly vetted counselors. These issues are compounded in sleepaway camps where children are isolated from their parents and other trusted adults for significant periods of time with minimal communication. At camp, kids experience alone time with other campers and with adults, often without very many adults present. These factors can enable summer camp sexual abuse to take place and to persist undetected.
Childhood Activities
Parents and other caregivers send their beloved young ones to a variety of childhood activities beyond those mentioned above, including scouting. As you may have seen in the news, since its founding in the early 20th century, leaders of the Boy Scouts of America kept secret files of thousands of sexual abuse cases committed by scout leaders and volunteers which were never publicly released until litigation compelled it. As a result, in 2020 with thousands of lawsuits against it for child sexual abuse, the Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing assets up to $10 billion.
Boy Scouts is not the only troop type of group activity young people participate in. Other such groups can include Indian Princesses, Girl Scouts, Frontier Girls, SpiralScouts International, Camp Fire, Planet Earth Scouts, Navigators USA, Woodcraft Rangers, American Heritage Girls, Calvinist Cadet Corps, Baden-Powell Service Organization, AWANA, Christian Service Brigade, Quest Clubs, and more.
“We now eagerly look forward to finally hold fully accountable all abusers and their enabling entities, determined to end the type of sordid, systemic, life-shattering abuses inflicted on innocent children in our state over decades.”
— Members of the Survivors Advisory Board
