Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse of a child is a horrific crime that has both civil and criminal penalties. The child, who can barely identify with oneself and lacks total consenting maturity, is left with life-long feelings of doubt, despair, depression, and embarrassment. It only takes a single event of improper touching to cause an avalanche of prolonged damage through adulthood.
Studies by the Crimes Against Children Research Center show that 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse. During a one-year period in the U.S., 16% of youth ages 14 to 17 had been sexually victimized and over the course of their lifetime, 28% of U.S. youth ages 14 to 17 had been sexually victimized. In addition, 3 out of 4 adolescents who have been sexually assaulted were victimized by someone they knew well. A child who is the victim of prolonged sexual abuse usually develops low self-esteem, a feeling of worthlessness and an abnormal or distorted view of sex. The child may become withdrawn and mistrustful of adults and can become suicidal.
To address both the impact on the victim and the culpability of the perpetrator, a civil lawsuit can be filed against both the perpetrator, and often times their employer under theories of negligent hiring, supervision and training. Claims against these employers are designed to prevent the systematic allowance of abuse by their failure to properly hiring, supervising and training of the molester. Employers, supervisors, co-workers and other adults may also hold some responsibility for these horrific acts. These individuals may have failed to conduct sufficient background checks, investigate complaints or report suspicious behavior to law enforcement.
Unlike a criminal suit where the concern is focused on prosecuting the sexual offender, and does little to protect the victim’s civil claims, a civil suit compensates the victim for the pain and suffering they endured as result of the conduct by both the perpetrator and any entity or person in charge of that victimizer. There is some justice when sexual assailants are convicted and sent to prison, but it doesn’t obliterate the pain and traumas borne by the victim and his or her family nor illuminate how such an unspeakable calamity could occur.
