Your Child Is in Danger! - An Urgent Problem

 

Assaults on children are often cloaked in secrecy, so much so that they have been called perhaps the most unreported  of crimes. Even so, such crimes have evidently spiraled upward in recent decades. In the United States, a survey on the subject was conducted by the Los Angeles Times. It found that 27 percent of the women and 16 percent of the men had been sexually abused as children.  Shocking as these statistics are, other  careful estimates for the United States have run considerably higher. 

In Malaysia, reports of child molestation have quadrupled over the past decade. In Thailand, some 75 percent of the men in one survey admitted to using child prostitutes. In Germany, officials estimate that as many as 300,000  children are sexually abused each year.  According to South Africa's Cape Times, the number of reports  of such assaults soared by  175 percent in a recent three-year period. In the Netherlands and Canada, researchers found that about one third of all women had been sexually abused as children. In Finland 18 percent of the ninth grade girls (15 or 16 years old) and  7  percent of the boys reported having sexual contact with someone at least five years their senior. 

In various countries disturbing reports have surfaced about religious cults that abuse children with sadistic sexual practices and torture.  Often, those who report that they were victims of such crimes are treated with incredulity, not compassion.

Next time: Your Child Is in Danger! - Conclusion of An Urgent Problem

From the jw.org publications