The good news is that children do benefit from early intervention by trained professionals.

• Child sexual abuse crosses all economic, racial, social, ethnic and religious boundaries.
• Over 1,100 cases of sexual abuse are reported daily in the United States.
• Studies indicate that, without treatment, as many as 40% of abused children will become child abusers.
• It is estimated that over 80% of the inmates in Tennessee prisons were abused.
• Approximately 70% of the men who sexually abuse were sexually abused as children.
• In a recent study of 535 women who had become pregnant as adolescents, 66% of these women had been sexually abused.
• Female child sexual abuse survivors are four times more likely to become prostitutes than non-abused females.
• Female child abuse survivors are four times more likely to become involved in sex-for-drugs behavior than non-abused females.
• Male child sexual abuse survivors are eight times more likely to become prostitutes than non-abused males.

The impact of sexual abuse on a child is consistently associated with very disturbing subsequent problems in a significant portion of its victims (Finklehor, 1986).  Documented long-term problems of sexually abused children are:  fear, substance abuse, anxiety, anger, hostility, sleep disturbance, inappropriate sexual behaviors, eating disorders, difficulty trusting others, poor interpersonal relationships and depression.

At the Children’s Advocacy Center of Hamilton County, Inc., we see marked improvement in behavioral problems and self-esteem.  We are also seeing a generation of children who have received help at the Center engaged in healthy adult lives and relationships.