Philadelphia DA Urges Child Sex Abuse Victims, Parents To Report Incidents
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - As part of Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month, Philadelphia district attorney Seth Williams today visited a center city facility that serves young sexual abuse victims.
The Philadelphia Children's Alliance is a child-friendly environment that allows a child to explain what happened to him or her one time, rather than repeating the traumatic story again and again to individual experts from the various agencies that may be involved in an investigation (see related story).
Williams (above) says his office has handled 700 cases of child sexual abuse and assault last year.
"So we need to get attention out that adults that are aware of these crimes committed against children have to report these crimes so that the healing can begin," he said.
Chris Kirchner (right), executive director of Children's Alliance, says studies indicate that one in four women and one in six men will have been sexually abused before the age of 18.
"That means that there are more than 42 million survivors of child sexual abuse in our country today," she said.
And she says you can add to that untold numbers of other victims who never reported the abuse and continue to suffer in silence.
Reported by Paul Kurtz, KYW Newsradio 1060
