For those of you who haven’t heard yet, Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of the 48 charges of child sexual abuse filed against him involving the abuse of 10 boys. For those of you unfamiliar with the case (many of my readers do not live in the United States), Jerry Sandusky was a well-known assistant college football coach who founded a charity for disadvantaged children. Several of these children (who are now adults) accused him of sexually abusing them. A jury believed their accounts, and Sandusky will be sentenced to prison soon.
I am wondering how readers are reacting to this verdict. My initial reaction is relief that juries will listen to the accounts of child abuse survivors even years after the abuse happened. Most children do not tell at the time that the abuse is taking place, which has effectively given many child abusers a “free pass.” As long as children must tell immediately after the child abuse happened to be believed, justice will never prevail because most children are too frightened to tell at the time the child abuse is happening.
I am also relieved that, according to the new accounts I am reading online, the public is supportive of Sandusky’s victims as well as the verdict. Can you imagine how much more difficult this situation would be if the press turned on the victims? My guess is that the victims are feeling a whirlwind of emotions right now. I am relieved that they are not feeling the need to justify themselves to the press.
I am grateful for the publicity that this case has generated because the general public doesn’t want to believe that anyone famous or that anyone who is active in charities for children can be a child abuser. This case is forcing the general public to acknowledge that being famous does not ensure that a person is safe around children, and it is also breaking through the denial that someone who does good things on the surface cannot also do bad things to children one-on-one.
I have spoken with numerous child abuse survivors over the years through this blog, at isurvive, and in person. Those who were abused by people who were pillars of the community often have an extra hurdle to overcome because they have been told their whole lives about what wonderful people their abusers are. I have spoken with child abuse survivors who were abused by pastors and missionaries – people who have done an enormous amount of good publicly but who made a child’s life a living hell at the same time. This duality really messes with a child abuse survivor’s head.
The Jerry Sandusky trial will (hopefully) help child abuse survivors who were abused by public “heroes” push through the hurdles of being harmed by someone who is beloved publicly. An abuser is an abuser regardless of his or her public face.
Photo credit: Lynda Bernhardt
That is a good verdict, I went through so much doubt about my abuser (my father) as he was a very popular figure in town and worked with schools and charities, these things do not make a person good. x
I’ve been kind of following this case from here in the UK via my online news sources. I’m very happy that there has been a conviction. I’m very aware of what can happen when a victim goes through the publicity and questioning of a court case and then the jury don’t believe them; I think there were some counts he wasn’t convicted of, in which case I hope the people in question are ok.
I think a lot of people want figures in whom they can believe in implicitly and invest authority. It used to be (and in many parts of the world still is) religious figures, but the general awareness of “paedophile priests” has put paid to that; these days I think it’s likely to be celebrities and anyone high-achieving, particularly doctors and people like that.
Interestingly, there is evidence that the highest incidence of workplace bullying is in caring professions (medicine, teaching and care work) and charities, because they attract abusers who want to work with vulnerable people that they can torture, and charity work appeals to the grandiosity of many bullies. Knowing this, I would be even more inclined to ignore someone’s profession and philanthropic activities when deciding whether they could be abusive.
I agree with the statement made by Jan. I worked for 10 years as a special education assistant. There were a few staff that you could tell enjoyed punishment. Through my sons years in school I unfortunately met those types as well. It took me a while to actually wrap my head around what was going on with these people. I chose the job because of my past and wanted to make a difference where I had none. It sickens me that these people stay in these positions because they are master manipulators. I am very glad they found him guilty and I pray it gives his countless victims some measure of peace.
Hi Jan and Lara,
I hope that this issue (that abusive people are MORE attracted to areas where they have better access to vulnerable victims) can get a LOT more publicity. I think awareness of this issue alone could do more than pretty much anything else I can see to start to push back against the tidal wave of child abuse. Everyone needs to be aware of the conditions that abusers take advantage of (and require) in order to assault a child.
Unfortunately, they often do the world’s ‘dirty work’ in difficult areas that few others want to do, so it’s tragically in a lot of people’s short-sighted self-interest to ignore what they do while there. I’ve listened to several radio programs about the prevalence of bullying in the nursing profession, and how they “eat their own”. The medical professions have far more than their fair share of sadists. This is straying somewhat from the topic here, but for instance in the world of serial-killers, angels of dealth (including both nurses and doctors) often kill in *far* larger numbers, and for far longer, than the sexual serial killers we usually read about – often because they pick more vulnerable victims who (as someone else mentioned here) no-one “misses” and they feel comfortable just looking the other way.
If we could get across this one point – that people who do bad things MOST OFTEN do it behind a mask of doing good things – hopefully we could start to give the average person the tools they need to really see and suspect perpetrators.
Faith, I also took from this case a great admiration for the assistant coach who blew the whistle at the time (though to no response) and then again years later, and who was willing to testify in the case. What a great man that is to risk his career and face what was likely a tremendous threat from the charity and university that wanted to hush this all up. I fear that without this one witness, the whole thing could have been further ignored and the victims further neglected. Thank goodness for this one man’s strength and courage, and I wish there were more people like him who see what is going on in abuse cases and are willing to speak up.
I live in the state where this took place, and I live very close to one of his adopted sons. You can imagine how inundated I have been with the news. It has been the only thing, other then the OTHER local sexual abuse case of Msgr Lynn of the Catholic Church, that has been on the news.
The state of Pennsylvania is in an interesting state. With so much all child sex abuse stories plastering the news, it has triggered survivors across the state (not to mention across the country). Even those with no sexual trauma have said to me recently, that just watching the news is making them feel traumatized.
For years, the community of State College, Philadelphia, and other areas of my state have been in denial of child abuse. There is a hospital near Bellefonte/State College, that when I was there years ago as a child, was nothing more then holding pen for child abuse victims. We either directed our anger at ourselves and had attempted suicide, or directed our anger outwards and attempted to hurt the abuser. Trauma/Abuse were not addressed, although it was the first time I had a PTSD diagnosis. They slapped you on meds and sent almost all of us back home to the environments where we came from.
I hope this is a wake up call for my community. We need to start by believing these victims before it ever gets to this point!
-Nel
We have a similar issue where I live- abuse, neglect, and financial problems are much too common but it took 7 student suicides for anyone to do anything. We are lucky that someone did something but the focus has been on homophobic bullying and how students are hurting each other rather than what is causing the bullying. I am incredibly grateful to the GLBT movement for calling our school district out and making sure that there was support for students but I also feel like people are using that to deny that anything else could possibly be up in the community.
I see
I see it as a.positive step. When I talk to.people I point out the witness did have the courage to tell those in the school and the police were lacking courage.
The internet is important in this as the press lacked courage.
As a practical matter it is going go start to be expensive to conspire with those that harm children which is needed.
I was totally thrilled by the verdict. Hopefully this will give others in the same situation the courage to come forward. I work with deaf adults. Most of them went to the state schools for the deaf. I would say that 98% of them went through some type of abuse, and, sadly, the majority were sexually abused by teachers, house parents, and other students. The problem they face is that they are deaf, so no one will believe them. I just wish someone in authority would really care for these kids would do something other than look the other way.
As always, I think there are going to be both positive and negative consequences. I’m hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. For instance the headline of this article makes me see red: “With 45 million U.S. victims of child abuse we can’t put their millions of abusers in jail”
http://acestoohigh.com/2012/06/18/with-45-million-u-s-victims-of-child-sex-abuse-we-cant-put-their-millions-of-abusers-in-jail/
This article is published on the ACESTOOHIGH website. ACES-TOO-HIGH is the organization that has grown out of the CDC ACEs study (Adverse Childhood Experiences). This study, and the resultant organization, is a great effort, but it too has serious and grave biases (it works from the model of males as abusers/women and children as victims which makes me see beyond red – purple perhaps?). Its reason for existance is to raise awareness of the prevalence and impact of child abuse on every aspect of life-functioning (particularly its resultant adverse health outcomes), and the phenomenal cost to society.
But even without including a large percentage of either the victims or perpetrators of female perpetrated abuse, they feel that the issue of child abuse is SO LARGE that we couldn’t possibly try to address it through the justice system.
Which says to me as a survivor of ‘complex’ child abuse (particularly as a survivor of female abuse) that – yet again – the justice system is for everyone else, but not for you. Just like every other service system out there.
“Which says to me as a survivor of ‘complex’ child abuse (particularly as a survivor of female abuse) that – yet again – the justice system is for everyone else, but not for you. Just like every other service system out there.”
That’s a familiar feeling, and a disgraceful headline; I feel they could have phrased the “nice people” part better too.
I like your phrase “beyond red”. As a victim of female-perpetrated sexual abuse, being airbrushed out of the picture makes me want to start punching people. I wasn’t raped by a man until I was 19; should I be grateful that that happened because I’m now allowed to join the conversation in a limited way? Hah. Some writers just can’t be arsed to use “people” or “perpetrators” instead of “men”, or “people” or “victims” instead of “women”, and there are some of us out here who pay every time they fail to do so. It’s just a word exchange, folks, it’s not difficult. Except where it requires a shift in worldview too, of course; we can’t have that, it’s far too difficult. Far more difficult than experiencing the abuse, clearly *rolls eyes*. Ahem. Went off on one there!
I’m totally blown away and relieved and satisfied that he is being held accountable for his actions. I was ready for it to go the other way and once again shake my head in disgust.
So this is good for all the reasons you mentioned and more.
m
Every time I listened to or read what the victims had to say it felt all to familiar. It could have been my words… Watching the news on Friday morning must have triggered me in some way although I’m not exactly sure as why… I was very unsettled and agitated… To the point I took the afternoon off work to try and get some ME time to try and relax and settle myself… The situation for me is all too familiar…
[...] Allen wrote in her blog “Blooming Lotus” about the Sandusky verdict on BELLEFONTE, PA – JUNE 18: Former Penn State assistant [...]
It’s funny. Yours is the second blog by a victim on the Sandusky case – all published or written as the jury was sequestered for the final decision, or soon thereafter when the verdict was given. I even wrote one, too (http://jeffssong.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/the-sandusky-trial-a-survivors-point-of-view). LOL, if you take a look I start with the official Grand Jury record – then the Defense and Prosecutor’s points of view, listed in order and followed by the latest allegation that he abused his adopted son. The ‘logical mind’ analysis of this thing, LOL, weighing all of the ‘facts’ as we know them (public record sort of thing). I have this damned ‘ability’ to see too many points of view – and I get condamned for that all the time. (not so funny, by the way; not my fault I can “understand” where “they” are coming from some time).
But the interesting thing here is: 3 blogs, all posted after all the ‘evidence’ was in – as though us survivors were weighing our views, and/or were somewhat (but not completely) unwilling to ‘comment’ one way or another sometimes. I know that’s the way it was with me, though I believed the man was damned and guilty after that one coach’s testimony.
And Sandusky himself was a monster; a type of molester I knew too well – the kind who uses love and trust against you – and then emotionally tries to twist you inside – then the blackmail and threats begin. I know all too well this kind of thing, and it made me sick as the trial unfolded to hear/see/read this testimony. After reading the Grand Jury Report I made up my mind – but didn’t say a word about it until the jury was sequestered. Odd that was done by 3 survivors (in my opinion; just a curiosity noted) – waiting until after that moment to post their final verdicts on this case. Just odd. (I’m into noting patterns and things, LOL)
BTW: I heard that the inmates were singing ‘Pink Floyd’s’ “Teacher – leave those children alone!” song when he walked in . . .
I gotta feeling he’s gonna get what he deserves.
We cried when the verdict was announced. My husband asked why I was crying, and it was because I was so relieved that finally, those victims were heard AND believed; that this arrogant, sick man, who hid behind his “good deeds” and his public works was unmasked for his truly sick behavior.
I am relieved by the amount of publicity the trial received, because I do think it ‘forced’ the general public to acknowledge child abuse.
I hope that this verdict may give others the courage to speak out if they are being abused.
wtr
I did have a much different reaction to this verdict due to my healing. I understood it was not about me rather the society that I live in. I really have no idea what those boys went through are going through or will go through in the future. In a way I see them more as individuals. Individuals that I do not know.
I can envy them the millions they will receive and not feel like I am a bad person. I know in my heart I have no idea what that would be like either.
I do not see it through rose colored glasses. I do see it as a step. I also see that anyone in the US can be striped searched at any time as a step.
I have known consciously that I was traumatized for 8 years. In that time it has gone from there are no pedophile rings to arrests for having child pornography to arrests for distributing it to some children being taken out of the situation. The children that are taken out of the situation are referred to as rescued when in fact they really only have a better chance.
Just a not on cults. It is often quoted that the FBI determined there are no cults. The reality is one guy with no research wrote one letter. I am hoping it goes the same way as the FBI’s determination there was not organized crime in the US,
As it was all coming out I was flooded with memories. The man that abused me was a high school coach. He took me to the school’s barn to see the animals and showed me how to use the machines in shop. He joked and teased me about being shy. The first time he actually assaulted me was at one of the barns. It hurt a lot. I was so embarrassed and confused. I had pain and some bleeding. He took me back to the gym. He apologized being too rough but said I excited him so much he couldn’t control himself. He was so gentle and washed me and put something on to stop the bleeding. He had me rest in the office while he worked and watched me before taking me home. Every day he made me meet him after school and he washed me and checked that I was healing. That led to more sexual acts.
It was confusing because all that attention and the touching felt good but I was ashamed of what I’d done. He told me if I said anything everyone at school what I’d done so we had to keep it to ourselves.
Since Sandusky’s verdict, seeing him in the orange jumpsuit and handcuffs I’ve thought about my teacher. I don’t know how many other kids he abused. He was never caught and died a few years ago. I’ve been tempted to go to his grave. I’m not sure why. I’d just like to see it.