South African Culture of Rape - Where Girls Carry Knives and Use Them

‘Lion Mama’ won’t face charges for killing daughter’s alleged rapist

By Tom Head 

A mother’s instinct is so incredibly powerful. When their child is in danger, they become superhuman. This is exactly what happened with an Eastern Cape Mom (dubbed ‘Lion Mama’) when her daughter was allegedly being gang-raped.

The wretched incident took place last month when the mother heard her daughter screaming for help. When she entered her room, it’s reported that she saw three men sexual assaulting the 27-year-old woman.

The bravery of ‘Lion Mama’

Lion Mama – who is still not allowed to be named – says she instinctively reacted, and fought off all of the men involved in the rape. When they tried to over power her, she was able to stab one of the assailants, fatally wounding him in the process.

In an incredible turn of events, the National Prosecuting Authority declined to proceed with the case against the mother as they said their chances of a successful prosecution were negligible.

Sandy McCowen, an eNCA reporter who was covering proceedings from the court, described what happens with Lion Mama now. She revealed that, despite her confession, there is ‘no likelihood’ that the prosecution can win this case.

“This is the final thing for her. The prosecution have looked at the case and the evidence involved. There is no likelihood that they can win this case, so therefore, they have struck this case off the roll.”

Community rallies round mother and daughter

The mother and her traumatized daughter have received an overwhelming amount of support since the incident. Initially, they were both threatened by family and friends of the men she wreaked revenge upon.

However, a crowdfunding page helped Lion Mama pay her bail, ease legal worries and even resulted in her receiving donations to renovate her house. The community spirit culminated in the mom receiving a huge cheer in the courtroom when she was allowed to go free.

The two other men mauled by the Lion are still in custody. They will now have their case heard in High Court. They are both expected to plead for bail.

Considering the mother and daughter were threatened by the families of the rapists, bail must be denied.

Eastern Cape, SA

Murder charge and jail sentence looms over 17-year-old girl who fought off her ‘potential rapist’

By Tom Head 

Image Credits: Barry Viljoen

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was on her way to a local tavern when she was attacked, according to the police.

In the subsequent struggle, the teenager managed to overpower the man she accuses of trying to rape her, stabbing the 21-year-old assailant to death in a bid to escape.

She then handed herself into the authorities of Lenyenye (Northern Limpopo), who had no choice but to charge her with the murder. Appearing in court, she was not asked to make a plea.

Police Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe stated that she was ‘visibly distraught’ upon arriving at the station, and can be assured that she will receive the ‘necessary care’ to cope with the situation.

The case has caused one hell of a moral dilemma. South Africa’s poor record on rape and recent rise in violence against women has elevated it out of any normal context, according to legal expert Mannie Wits

“When looking at a self-defence plea, the court broadly uses the test of what the reasonable man or woman would do in a similar situation”.

“The test of what a reasonable man in [for example], the UK would do in a similar situation to a man in South Africa is not the same. South Africans are living under fear, they overreact. This is not a normal society.”

BBC News correspondent Pumza Fihlani went past the moral debate and weighed up the legal implications of the 17-year-old’s situation:

“The country’s laws on self-defence have faced criticism in the past, with some legal analysts saying the law should offer more support to those forced to fight off attacks in a society with a high crime rate.

But some legal scholars have argued it is precisely because of this high crime rate that people should not be able to kill others with impunity and self-defense pleas should face high hurdles.”

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever! Ideals are great but they are of little use if you're being raped or murdered.

Due to the defendant still being a minor, she will be assigned social worker and a trauma counsellor to help her prepare for her case.

Unfortunately, this case happened in early June, 2017, and I cannot find anything more recent. She was to appear in court on June 14th, but these is nothing on the internet that I can find since then.

If anyone can update me on this, I would appreciate that.

Limpopo, SA

The astonishing attitudes of South African men

toward rape

South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence towards women in the world and while there has been a decline in reported rapes from 2009 to last year, the true extent of the problem is not known. 

The 2015/16 crime stats had 42 595 rapes reported. It’s a scary stat.

Back in 2013, SkyNews put together a “snapshot” view of men’s attitudes towards rape. Their answers, in some cases, are chilling. Sky spoke to 38 men out of which as many as 28 said that they had raped a woman – some more than once. Some even explained how and why.

The news organisation admits that their method was “unscientific”, but the answers are still harrowing.

Here are some of the answers. 

Respondent number one – aged 34

Q: Did you have sex with a woman who didn’t want to?

A: Yes

Q: When was it?

A: 2011

Q: Would you call it rape?

A: Yes

Q: How many times have you raped someone?

A: Twice

Q: How did it happen?

A: We were having some beers in a tavern and I spent (money on) the lady but when (the) time arrived (to) go she refused. I had to use manpower to take her with me. We never got to my place so I decided to rape her. The second time it was the same woman again, we met at a shebeen and we had beers together, when she decided to leave the place I escorted her and along the way I raped her.

Q: Did she report the case?

A: No.

Q: Do you know why?

A: She told me that though I raped her what she has I now also have it.

Q: What did she mean by that?

A: She meant she was HIV positive.

Respondent number three – aged 38

Q: Have you ever had sex with a woman who didn’t want to?

A: Yes

Q: How did it happen?

A: I always wanted the woman but because (I) am ugly and I knew that if I (tried) to (proposition) her she (would refuse) … unless I have a lot of money to buy her. I knew where she lived and traced her movements and how many people she lived with in her shack, but I found out that her boyfriend only came (back at) month ends. I went to her place Friday night and it was raining so it helped me attack her well as no one else could hear me. I used a bolt cutter to gain entry, wielding a butcher knife. I told her not to scream until I leave her place.

Q: Did she open a (police) case?

A: I don’t know because I never got arrested for the rape.

Respondent number eight – aged 39

Q: Have you ever had sex with a woman who didn’t want to?

A: Yes

Q: How did it happen?

A: My ex-girlfriend’s sister lived with us in the same shack and when (I was) off her sister would be at work, so we watched TV together. I asked and promised to buy her expensive shoes if she slept with me. She refused and I forced myself on her and told her that if she talked about it I would chase both her (and) her sister, so she kept quiet.

Q: How do you feel whenever you see her after you did this?

A: I feel nothing bad about it.

Q: Why not?

A: I supported her at my place and I deserved to ask for a favour too.

Q: Do you call it rape?

A: No.

Q: But you forced yourself on her?

A: Yes.

Respondent number 11 – aged 26

Q: Have you ever had sex with a woman who didn’t want to?

A: Yes.

Q: When?

A: 2013.

Q: How did happen?

A: We are a gang and we steal and rape women. This year (in) February we went out, seven of us, to a busy tavern to rob people on the street and rape women. At about 12pm the woman walked out of the tavern alone going to an outside toilet. We followed her, three of us, and raped her.

Q: What happened after the rape?

A: We moved out of the area for a while but until now nothing has ever happened to us.

Q: Were you doing it for the first time?

A: No.

Q: What do you think about what you do to women?

A: We are gangsters and we love it.

Q: Don’t you think you could be caught and thrown in jail?

A: We aren’t afraid of prison.

Respondent number 12 – aged 34

Q: Have you ever slept with a woman who didn’t want to?

A: Yes

Q: When did it happen?

A: 2000

Q: How did it happen?

A: Fridays we went out to chill and drink some beers … after hours me and my friend we saw a young good-looking woman who was drunk on the street, we took her to our place and (raped) her in our shack for an hour. This became a habit and every Friday we made sure that we hung on at the tavern to pick up girls who were drinking after hours.

Q: How many times have you raped a woman?

A: Five times.

Q: Have you ever been arrested for any rape?

A: Once.

Q: Did you serve time for it?

A: Yes.

Q: How long?

A: Six years.

Q: Do you think it’s the right thing to do?

A: Why do women go to taverns in mini-skirts?

Q: What do you think they want?

A: To be raped.

Respondent number 16 – aged 38

Q: Have you ever slept with a woman who did not want to?

A: Yes

Q: How did it happen?

A: From a street bash where we all had … alcohol and slept at my friend’s apartment with three other girls who (were) friends of my friend’s girlfriend. This is where I took a chance after seeing that this other (person) was completely drunk.

Q: Were you doing this for the first time?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you call this rape?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you know people who do the same?

A: A lot of them.

Almost One in Five German Girls Have Experienced Child Sex Abuse

Child sex abuse: "We have not yet left the taboo zone"

A new study reveals that almost every seventh German has experienced sexual abuse during childhood. The German commissioner for child abuse says politicians must devote more resources to prevention.

Experts had hoped that the numbers would drop, but a recent representative study conducted by the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Ulm in southern Germany reveals the opposite. 

In 2011, about 12 percent of interviewees reported experiences of sexual abuse during childhood. An increase from 15.2 to 18 percent was documented for women. The 9.5 percent for men did not change compared to 2011. Researchers spoke to 2,500 representative German interviewees ages 14 to 94. 

In an interview with DW, the independent commissioner responsible for questions relating to child sexual abuse, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, said that political decision makers have not yet realized how urgent the matter is.

Political decision makers have not yet realized 

how urgent the matter is

DW: Mr. Rörig, were you surprised about the increase in cases?

Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig: No, I was not surprised that there was no drop in numbers. Neither police crime statistics nor research on unreported cases has indicated any sort of decline. Commitment to the protection of children and adolescents from sexual abuse has become stronger but we have not yet reached the point where we have nationwide protection. And because we do not make use of all the possible options, the number of incidents remains high.

Why hasn't there been a breakthrough yet?

We need to invest more in prevention and intervention than protection. The round table working group on child abuse made recommendations in 2011. We know how to improve protection for children and adolescents and what type of help is urgently needed by children and adolescents who have been abused by family members or people they know. But all the possible options have not been used or provided to the children. And we are working very hard, for example, on our "schools against sexual violence" initiative. We have established a cooperation between all 16 state culture ministers so we can help children get out of the predicament of abuse in their family. But unfortunately, seven years after the big abuse scandal involving Catholic schools came to light in 2010, we are only at the beginning.

What do politicians have to do to better protect children and adolescents?

We need to create work conditions that are also designed for the long term. Many of the projects we carry out are only temporary. For example, my contract is temporary and politicians have limited the duration of the treatment commission. Child sexual abuse cannot be contained by short-term measures. It is a long haul. In order to work with full force against sexual abuse and to thwart the strategies of perpetrators, politicians must provide more funding. It means - and this is what I keep asking for - that the allocation of public funds, like funding for top class sports organizations, should be linked to the implementation of protective measures against child abuse in these institutions.

Why haven't politicians done what should be done?

A campaign encourages victims of abuse to break the silence

The subject of child sexual abuse is disturbing and it sets off defensive reactions. Many people in politics think that enough has been done. For example, they think that an abuse commissioner is enough. But that is not enough. Child abuse is a major social problem. If 7 percent of children and adolescents are confronted with sexual abuse when they are growing up and if one considers the severity of the consequences that sometimes persist over a lifetime, then you can see the discrepancy between the political sermons and the political actions. 

We must reach the politicians who provide funds but are far removed from child protection issues. I am fighting for this and I hope that concrete measures for the improved protection of children and adolescents will be presented in the platforms of the political parties that are currently preparing for the parliamentary elections. 

I am banking on our new president, Frank Walter Steinmeier, becoming a clear supporter of our efforts on this front. We need well-known people who support the fight against child sexual abuse.

How much attention does the subject of abuse get in society?

Sensitivity has been heightened since the abuse scandal of 2010. But responses still are not consistent. For example, when a school principal says, "We want to introduce protective measures against child sexual abuse," then he is sure to face resistances in many cases, for example from teaching staff who say, "That is not our job. And why should we worry about it anyway? We haven't had a case here." It is often misunderstood by parents as well, in the sense that a school that wants to do something to protect children and adolescents is then put under general suspicion. In Germany, we have not yet left the taboo zone.

What are the consequences of sexual abuse?

A prevention campaign by the Charité hospital in Berlin offers help to potential abusers

Abuse generally triggers a wide range of psychological ailments. Those affected suffer, for example, from sexual problems or problems in relationships. Some people completely withdraw from society; others turn to alcohol or drugs. Children and adolescents can become aggressive, anorexic or obese because of the abuse. The consequences for those affected are serious; they even include suicide.

The economic consequences are also huge. There is a study that estimates that trauma costs 10 billion euros a year. This takes into account not just the cost of treatment but also the costs that arise when people, for example, cannot work because of the trauma. The costs for social security, like pension or health insurance or compensation for the victims, are huge. That is why I require a sufficient response from politicians. When politicians ask me, "Why do you want to achieve more?" I realize that they cannot link what the children have suffered to the subsequent costs for our social systems. Fact is, apart from the terrible suffering, major economic damage is also caused by sexual abuse.

Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig has served as an independent commissioner for questions related to child sexual abuse since 2011. The office was set up in 2010 after the Round Table for Sexual Abuse revealed the extent of child sexual abuse in schools and church organizations in Germany.

(Right)  Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig (Christine Fenzl )

Chilling Evidence of Organized Child Sex Abuse Revealed in Survey

The survey referred to here was also featured in my previous post. Here are links to the report and also to the survey which is still active. If you are a survivor of child pornography please consider taking part in the survey.

Odette and her sisters Rosemary and Lucy are among the victims of what a new survey by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection suggests is a widespread tragedy — child exploitation rings led by parents of the abused.

Sisters Lucy, Odette and Rosemary are pictured in Seattle.  (STEPHEN BRASHEAR / AP)  

By ROBERT CRIBB Foreign

It would often happen late at night.

A father, respected as a professional and family man, would awaken his two toddler daughters and take them to his back office, away from the bedrooms where their mother and siblings slept.

Groggy and confused, the girls would follow his instructions and pose naked against a studio backdrop or with props such as boas and coconut bras and hula skirts.

As they grew older, strange men would arrive when their mother was away. Under their father’s guidance, the girls would reluctantly agree to do what they were told.

“I would see him over me and we were both naked,” recalls Odette, now 23, one of three sisters speaking publicly for the first time about the abuse their father inflicted. “He would tell me it was a special bond for us.”

The father would post their special bond with parents and abusers across the U.S. and Europe as a central player in an international child exploitation ring involving more than a million images.

Odette and her sisters Rosemary and Lucy (pseudonyms they chose) are among the victims of what a new international survey conducted by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection suggests is a widespread tragedy — child exploitation rings led by parents of the abused.

Responses from 128 child abuse survivors across North America and Europe found 52 per cent were victimized by a network of abusers, overwhelmingly involving their own parents, who shared images and even their children themselves with others. In most cases — nearly 70 per cent — images were then shared with millions more strangers online.

Most survivors are haunted by the online life of the imagery. More than 70 per cent surveyed said that the imagery never ends and makes them feel vulnerable to being recognized. About 90 per cent said their abuse affected both their education and professional success, in part because they know their victimization continues online.

About 30 per cent said they had been recognized by someone who saw their images online. Of those, 64 per cent said they were “targeted” — either blackmailed or propositioned.

“We were definitely most shocked about the extent of organized child sexual abuse in our survey,” says executive director Lianna McDonald. “We learned that often those closest and most trusted by children were responsible for not only abusing their children, but sadly, also orchestrating and facilitating the abuse by many others.”

The survey defines organized sexual abuse as involving multiple offenders, primarily parents and relatives, creating and sharing child sexual abuse images, exchanging children for sexual purposes or engaging in “sadistic, torture-related and ritualistic abuse.”

The story of the three sisters is the story of most child abuse victims. Their abuse, like 60 per cent of survey respondents, involved a parent, most often a father. Like the more than 80 per cent of respondents, they are female.

The exploitation of the sisters began, like nearly 90 per cent of survey respondents, before age 12. Like all respondents in the survey, their abuse was recorded.

Not all respondents answered all questions. The findings reflect the responses of those who answered each question.

The names and locations of the sisters are being withheld to protect their privacy. The Star interviewed them over two days in Seattle, where their lawyer is based. Lucy, the eldest sister, did not suffer the same physical abuse as her sisters but carried the weight of a young child trying to protect her siblings from a father she instinctively knew was evil.

That father, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the women, is in prison. He was sentenced more than a decade ago, along with more than 20 others, to 30 years for conspiracies to sexually exploit children and produce and distribute sexually explicit material.

Dozens of children were victimized by the group, court records show.

Several U.S. enforcement officials at the time called it one of the most disturbing cases they’d seen in their careers.

In separate interviews, Rosemary and Odette recalled their father abusing them and bringing men home or taking them to the homes and offices of others.

All three remember a trip to another city where their father took them to the home of one of his friends who had two children of his own.

Odette and Rosemary were separated into different rooms, they recall.

“I remember screaming and her screaming that we didn’t want to be separated,” Odette says through tears.

She was taken into a room with a photographic backdrop where the man’s older daughter was.

“She would comfort me and tell me everything is going to be OK . . . . All we have to do is smile . . . . I remember it being really uncomfortable and scary. And my dad wasn’t there.”

Rosemary, one year younger, also has clear recollections of the day.

“I remember them molesting us, taking pictures, undressing us. I remember always trying to get out, scream or kick.”

Lucy, aged 10 at the time, was on the other side of the locked door, desperately trying to help, but unable.

“I could hear them crying and trying to touch the doorknob to get out. That was just a horrific moment for me . . . . Now I know they were being raped.”

Most often, the abuse would happen at home, on a flowered couch in the father’s office.

“(My father) would wake me up in the middle of the night. He would undress me when I was half asleep and do things,” said 22-year-old Rosemary. “I will always remember the flash of the camera and being woken up from it. Every year, to take a photo ID for school it was really hard because they would have all of those flashes . . . . It would take me back to that.”

Lucy recounts the abuse from a different perspective — that of an uneasy observer of her father’s appetite for taking photographs of his daughters and neighbourhood children.

Even before she had words, she recalls feeling that something was wrong

“I would stay with my sisters all the time to protect them,” says Lucy, who says her father had access to at least 10 children. “His friends who would come to visit were from around the world. I guess they were in some type of club. They would all take pictures all day with the children.”

She recalls trying her best to thwart his plans by breaking his cameras or computer equipment in an act of defiance.

The sisters, who live in the U.S. West, say their mother knew nothing of the abuse. Mourning the death of her own mother, the sisters recall her being depressed and distracted, often travelling to another city and leaving them with their father.

“He had full access to us,” says Lucy.

All three say memories of that betrayal intrude on their lives daily, challenging their current relationships. Rosemary and Odette live with the knowledge that countless images of their exploitation continue to circulate online.

“It’s a constant issue knowing that I can’t take those down and keep them down,” says Odette.

“It’s just so much bigger than me and out of my control so it makes it really hard to live, knowing that someone out there is doing something with those photos at any time of the day.”

None of the women want to be married or have children.

“The thought of having kids scares me,” says Odette, who, like her sisters, has a boyfriend. “You can’t control horrible things from happening . . . I think that plays a big part in marriage, too. I always wanted my dad to walk me down the aisle and have that support and authority in a positive way. I’ll just never have that.”

"I think of the problems that I know Rosemary and Odette have had in school and the problems they have in trying to have a regular job, and you just can’t do it when you’re always looking over your shoulder," says attorney Carol Hepburn.  (STEPHEN BRASHEAR)  

Carol Hepburn, their Seattle lawyer, says their story is representative of so many others.

“We have three beautiful women who don’t want to get married or have kids who have so much to give but whose ability to give is stunted. I think of the problems that I know Rosemary and Odette have had in school and the problems they have in trying to have a regular job, and you just can’t do it when you’re always looking over your shoulder and triggered by worries that this person in front of me was looking at pictures of me as a little girl on a computer getting raped or molested.”

The U.S. Department of Justice sends notifications to victims alerting them that their images were identified in child pornography investigations. Over the past two years, Hepburn’s law firm has received more than 500 such notices informing them that images of Rosemary and Odette have turned up.

The sisters’ shared nightmare has forged a bond, one that has carried them through depression, severe anxiety, alienation from friends and family and the discovery of their faith.

“(Faith in God) was my relief, my way of finding happiness,” says Odette. “It felt like I did have a dad, it was just a spiritual one. I struggle with that, even to this day. It’s hard to know that I had a dad who didn’t love me like he should have.”

Without that new-found spirituality, “we probably would have killed ourselves,” says Rosemary, who now works as a caregiver after bouts with drugs and alcohol in school. “I think that’s how we all felt.”

During a walk through a Seattle park, a dozen small children wandered past, escorted by a daycare teacher. For Rosemary, the scene triggered a chilling thought.

“I was thinking, there are three or four that might be being molested and we don’t know,” she said through tears. “When I walk down the street or I’m at the mall . . . it’s always on my mind.”

When she was waitressing a few years ago, a male customer approached.

“(He) told me, ‘Hey I know you, you look like someone who’s been on the computer,’ ” she recalls. “He gave me a weird look. I just cried. My mouth fell open. I ran away.”

Lucy, 27, was watching Rocky recently and she had to stop.

“I flashed back to when my dad paid us to wrestle,” she recalls. “It just made me feel gross inside.”

“(Faith in God) was my relief, my way of finding happiness,” says Odette. Without that new-found spirituality, “we probably would have killed ourselves,” says Rosemary.  (STEPHEN BRASHEAR)  

It was a late January evening when the sisters saw their father for the last time. Rosemary and Odette had gone with him to their brother’s hockey game. Their brother’s team won so Dad took them for milkshakes on the way home.

Twelve-year-old Lucy was at home cooking, watching The Brady Bunch on TV and signing Valentine’s Day cards for her classmates.

When she answered a knock at the door, about 10 plain-clothed police officers entered and began asking questions and rooting through the house.

When their father pulled into the driveway, they could see the flashing police lights.

“My mom was crying. My sister was crying. There was like FBI and search dogs. They pulled us separately into different rooms and asked us questions,” Rosemary recalls.

Just remembering the moment brings anxiety for Odette.

“I remember my mom crying and crying saying, ‘I don’t want to lose you, I love you.’ And I remember thinking, this is all my fault . . . I felt like because of me, I didn’t have a family anymore.”

The sisters don’t feel such guilt anymore.

Their father has written to them but rather than being remorseful or contrite, the letters are angry and accusatory.

“He was mad because I didn’t live up to his standards,” says Odette of a letter she received from him at age 18. “I remember reading the letter and screaming, cursing . . . . I just remember reading it and ripping it up.”

The sisters have remained silent so long because they felt humiliated and embarrassed. Now, they wish to have a voice.

“I know something good can come out of this in the end,” says Rosemary. “This is why God put this in our lives. We had to go through it for a reason — so we could help other people.”

Sitting and speaking candidly, says Odette, is about “keeping the fire inside me lit, the fire that tells me I can make a difference and help people like me. I want to be able to do that with sophistication, with grace, with love.”

Almost 50% of Women Under 25 Report Being Sexually Assaulted; 85% Sexually Harassed

International Women’s Day poll finds 85% of young women have been sexually harassed

© Stringer / Reuters

A majority of young British women have been sexually harassed in a public place, a new poll has revealed, with 85 percent of women under the age of 25 reporting incidents.

Campaigners say the attacks are forcing women to plan their lives to avoid situations where they feel unsafe, and expressed their disappointment and worry that such incidents were “regular.”

The study, conducted by YouGov and commission by End Violence Against Women, shared its results on Tuesday to coincide with International Women’s Day.

YouGov surveyed 1,650 British women, finding that almost half of women aged between 18 and 24 had experienced unwanted sexual touching, and 85 percent had experienced sexual harassment in a public place.

Almost half have experienced 

non-consensual sexual touching

- sexual assault!

Overall the number of women who said they had been sexually harassed in public was 64 percent.

So this difference between 18-24 year olds and women of all ages, (85% to 64%) is an indication that the problem is getting worse - significantly worse. This is the 'culture of rape' coming home to roost in society in general. The culture of rape is, I believe, the offspring of the easy availability of pornography, especially to adolescent boys whose brains are in the process of re-wiring. As long as pornography is readily available, this problem will just keep getting worse. Pornography objectifies women, which is what these numbers confirm.

Some 80 percent of people who had experienced unwanted sexual touching said they would have liked someone to intervene, but only 11 percent said someone had come to their rescue.

The culture of rape is 

coming home to roost

Sarah Green, acting director at the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: “If women are planning their lives around not being harassed or assaulted, they are not free.”

“Women should be free to live their lives without the threat of harassment and violence, not having to plan and limit their choices to make sure they’re safe.”

“Girls and young women are growing up in the UK today being exposed to unwanted sexual attention, harassment and assault.”

“They are learning to change their behavior so they can manage these incidents because they are so regular. We need to really question any idea that this behavior is trivial or in any way acceptable given what we can see about its impact,” she added.

The poll also found that women are increasingly planning their days to avoid situations where they might feel unsafe.

Some 63 percent of respondents said they felt unsafe in public, with many saying they chose to avoid potentially dangerous situations by leaving earlier or taking a different route.

Charlotte, a student, said she had to change her route home because there were “men who would not leave her alone,” adding it was “unsettling and infuriating.”

In response to the findings, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid Polly Neate told the Independent the situation needs to be tackled.

“This survey shows how far we have to go in our society to make it as safe for women as it is for men. Violence against women is underpinned by misogyny, and it is vital that we do not accept the sexual harassment of young women in public as a ‘part of life.’”

“This routine assaults on women must be challenged and taken seriously.”  - Amen!

One in 3 Florida Girls are Sexually Abused - Online Survey

One in three Florida women and one in five men say they’ve been sexually abused before the age of 18.

That’s according to a recent Internet survey of more than 1,000 Floridians, conducted by Sachs Media Group for the Lauren’s Kids foundation. Those who conducted the poll say it both supports common perceptions about child sexual abuse and indicates that barriers exist to reporting such crimes.

“It’s a lot of what we see and what we know,” said Lauren Book, founder and CEO of the South Florida-based sex abuse prevention nonprofit. “We see these things day in and day out.”

Thirty-four percent of respondents said a friend or family member was definitely sexually abused before 18. Fourteen percent said someone close to them probably was abused before 18.

According to the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website, about 1.8 million adolescents in the United States have been the victims of sexual assault; about 36 percent of those are between the ages of 12 and 17. About 82 percent of minor victims are girls.

Earlier this year, three employees of The Magnolia School on Tharpe Street were charged with failure to report suspected sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl.

“I think the first thing that jumps out is what validates the stats that are already out there,” said Karen Cyphers, vice president for research and policy at Sachs Media Group.

Of the various takeaways from the study, which will be released in full on Thursday, is that there’s still insecurity and apprehension about reporting child sexual abuse, she said.

“People do really find a lot of barriers to reporting,” Cyphers said.

Nearly 50 percent of all parents worry a child may not be accurately recalling an incident, the survey found. About 43 percent of fathers are concerned their daughter could be ridiculed by peers and about a fifth of parents fear a lengthy legal process.

“We see this stuff every day; people are afraid to get involved,” Book said. “They aren’t sure they have all the information.”

But Book said the law in Florida is clear: Everyone is required to report child sexual abuse. The study found that 1 in 5 people did not know that.

“I’m really glad to shine the light that this is the prevailing thought out there,” she said. “The reality is that a child needs us ... to be their voice for them.”


Barriers to reporting:

•30 percent fear child would be ridiculed by other children

•24 percent don’t want to be dragged through legal process

•10 percent said they would feel too much shame for the family

•48 percent said children might not be accurate

Impact later in life:

•52 percent of those abused reported “some” or “quite a few” adult problems as a result

For more information visit laurenskids.org.