Transforming Fear into Power: The Politicization of Child Sexual Abuse

Trailing in the polls a week and a half before Election Day 2006, then-Governor Bob Ehrlich (MD-R) announced new funds to track sex offenders. The press secretary for Ehrlich's opponent, Martin O'Malley, called the move "clearly political."

It is hard to find a campaign anywhere -- for Attorney General, Senate or School Board -- where one candidate is not pronouncing that another candidate has been too soft on pedophiles. This follows a national trend -- from California to Wisconsin to the U.S. Congress -- of the passage of "get-tough-on-offenders" legislation. Republican state representative from Georgia, Jerry Keen, captured the mood when he said, "We want to make it so tough, that [child sex offenders] are not going to live in Georgia once they are released."

Yet those most impacted by child sexual abuse -- survivors, their supporters, and those who work with perpetrators -- are critical of these new public policies, saying they do little to address the enormous problem. The United Nations reported last year that 150 million girls are sexually abused each year, (14 percent of the planet's child population), as well as seven percent of boys.

Largely ignored by both the mainstream and progressive media, a grassroots movement is empowering communities to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse (CSA), while holding perpetrators accountable.

Facing Our Own Monsters

Articulate, passionate, and regarded by her peers as an effective advocate, Gianna Gariglietti, Executive Director of Citizens Against Sexual Assault (CASA) in Harrisonburg, Virginia, was invited to join a Task Force for developing the state's sexual violence prevention strategy.

As part of her training, Gariglietti was asked to attend a speech by a man who sexually abused children 20 years ago. "I didn't want to do it," recalled the counselor who has provided services to child and adult survivors of sexual violence for years. "I just thought, ugh."

Gariglietti pulled along a co-worker and attended the workshop, which ended up dramatically changing the way CASA did its work. "It was an unbelievable experience ... hearing offenders, who are in recovery say, 'I didn't want to do this, I wanted some help. When someone called me out on my behavior, I was relieved,'" recalls Gariglietti, the mother of a young son.

For years, CASA's staff had responded to phone inquiries for help from perpetrators, or potential perpetrators, with a quick and cold, "I'm sorry, we don't do that here. Good bye." After the conference, and a partnership with conference sponsor Stop it Now!, a national prevention organization, CASA became more aware of services for perpetrators. "Now we're more likely to say, 'We don't do that here, but here are some resources that you can turn to,'" explains Gariglietti.

The MA-based Stop it Now! has been working for years to dispel what it considers the dangerous practice of demonizing child sex offenders. "The stark truth is that more often than not, people who sexually abuse children really are 'nice people' who commit monstrous acts," reads one of its monthly newsletters. "Our wish to place them squarely in one camp or the other is perhaps the greatest single barrier that prevents us from recognizing the behaviors that lead to sexual abuse."

CASA, a nine person organization serving Central Virginia, is now in partnership with the Virginia Department of Heath, which identified CSA as a statewide public health crisis after finding 1 in 4 women and 1 in 5 men have been victims of child sexual assault.

From its office in a red brick building, nestled in the Shenandoah Mountain valley, CASA's programming more closely reflects the realities of CSA: young people under 18 years of age perpetrate 29 percent of assaults; and almost half of the perpetrators were identified as family members, and only 10 percent were strangers.