Prevalence

• 1 in 3 females and 1 in 6 males in Canada experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18.
• 80% of all child abusers are the father, foster father, stepfather or another relative or close family friend of the victim.
• Incestuous relationships last 7 years on average. University of Victoria, Canada.
• 1 in 5 children in America are solicited sexually while on the internet.
• An estimated 39 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse exist in America today.

Consequences of child sexual abuse begin affecting children and families immediately. They also affect society in innumerable and negative ways. These effects can continue throughout the life of the survivor so the impact on society for just one survivor continues over multiple decades. Try to imagine the impact of 39 million survivors”. Darkness to Light, Charleston, U.S.A.

• 48% (almost every other one) of Caribbean adolescent girls surveyed described their own sexual initiation as forced. “Cost of Caribbean Crime Grows”, Wall Street Journal, May, 2007.
• In February, 2008, Professor Paula Pinhiero, director of the United Nations Secretary-General’s study on Violence against Children, advised that girls under 16 accounted for 32% of all sexual assaults in Jamaica.

There are too many girls who have had, as a pattern of survival, to accept that they have to give sex to people even for the sake of having protection from others…the situation is particularly troubling for the region since it already accounts for 42 per cent of the world’s homicides, not to mention that 80,000 people below age 18 die each year in Latin America and the Caribbean because of violence….I think it is time that the Caribbean starts looking at itself and realizing we have an emergency here….It is an emergency that is bigger than any hurricane that has ever passed through here and it starts in the homes and we need to start changing it.” Nils Kastberg, Regional Director, UNICEF, Latin America and Caribbean Region. November, 2008.

• Every hour of every day, 228 children and adolescents, mainly girls, are sexually exploited in Latin America and the Caribbean…Despite more than a decade of global efforts, sexual exploitation grows and with every new technology that is created, new methods are invented to exploit children. If we want to have any chance to catch up and overcome these new challenges, we must accelerate the pace of our actions. Nils Kastberg, Regional Director, UNICEF, Latin America and the Caribbean, 2009.