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Republicans deplore Trump mocking Kavanaugh Accuse

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    Posted: October 03 2018 at 2:50pm
Republicans deplore Trump mocking Brett Kavanaugh accuser
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Media captionMr Trump cast doubt on Prof Ford's credibility
US President Donald Trump is facing criticism from fellow Republicans after he mocked a woman who says she was assaulted by his Supreme Court nominee.

Senators Jeff Flake and Susan Collins, both key votes to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, called Mr Trump's remarks "appalling" and "just plain wrong".

At a rally, Mr Trump poked fun at Christine Blasey Ford for not recalling key details of the alleged assault.

Last week the Republican president called her a "very credible witness".

What will the FBI investigation actually do?
If approved, Judge Kavanaugh, 53, would be expected to tilt the ideological balance of the Supreme Court in favour of conservatives.

Its nine justices are appointed for life and have the final say on some of the most contentious issues in US public life, from abortion, to gun control, to voting laws.

Mr Flake - who helped spur the FBI investigation into Judge Kavanaugh - told NBC's Today show: "There's no time and no place for remarks like that.

"To discuss something this sensitive at a political rally is just not right. It's just not right. I wish he hadn't had done it."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Judge Brett Kavanaugh (L) and Professor Christine Blasey Ford
The Arizona senator is a closely watched swing vote as Republicans can potentially only afford one defection if they are to confirm their nominee.

Ms Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine, told reporters on Wednesday: "The president's comments were just plain wrong."

She has not yet said whether she will vote for Judge Kavanaugh either.

Later on Wednesday, moderate Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski joined in the criticism, saying Mr Trump's speech was "wholly inappropriate" and "unacceptable".

"I am taking everything into account," Senator Murkowski said when asked by reporters if it may affect her vote.

What is the other reaction?
Prof Ford's lawyer, Michael Bromwich, described Mr Trump's words as "a vicious, vile and soulless attack" on her.

"Is it any wonder that she was terrified to come forward, and that other sexual assault survivors are as well?" he added.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday denounced Mr Trump's "outright mockery of a sexual assault survivor".

At a briefing at the White House, Mr Trump's press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said she did not think the president's performance had made the approval more difficult.

What did Mr Trump say?
At Tuesday night's rally in Mississippi, Mr Trump mocked gaps in Prof Ford's memory about the alleged assault 36 years ago.


Media caption'Ford is a liar': Trump supporters' unequivocal backing for Kavanaugh
He said: "Where's the house? I don't know! Upstairs, downstairs, where was it? I don't know! But I had one beer. That's the only thing I remember. And a man's life is in tatters."

Shortly after Prof Ford's testimony to the Senate last week, Mr Trump said she was a "very fine woman".

What does Prof Ford remember?
When she spoke before the Senate committee last Thursday, Prof Ford recalled that the house where the alleged assault took place was in the Chevy Chase-Bethesda area in the Washington DC suburbs.

The president seemed to suggest she did not know on what floor of the property the alleged attack had occurred, but Prof Ford told senators she remembered being pushed into a bedroom on the upstairs level.


Media caption"Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me yelling"
She testified that Judge Kavanaugh held his hand over her mouth to prevent her shouts from being heard, and attempted to rape her at the party in the summer of 1982.

Prof Ford did acknowledge in her testimony that she could not provide all the details asked of her - including how she arrived at the party or how she left it and where exactly it took place.

Experts have said it is not unusual for victims of trauma to remember certain details vividly but have little recollection of other things.

Why sexual assault survivors forget details
Ford's testimony through the eyes of a survivor
'Ex-boyfriends' attack accusers
Prof Ford's legal team has released a statement to rebut claims by a purported ex-boyfriend of hers.

Fox News has obtained a letter from the unnamed man contradicting her testimony that she had never given anyone advice on taking lie-detector tests.

The unidentified man says he witnessed the California psychology professor coach a friend on how to take a polygraph while applying for a government job.

Prof Ford's legal team released a statement from Prof Ford's friend, Monica McLean, the woman named in the purported ex-boyfriend's letter.

Ms McLean denied that Prof Ford had ever had any "type of assistance whatsoever in connection with any polygraph exam I have taken at anytime".

Image Copyright @ShannonBream@SHANNONBREAM
Report
Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of releasing another letter attacking another Kavanaugh accuser, Julie Swetnick.

The correspondence was sent by a man identifying himself as a former boyfriend of Ms Swetnick.

Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, told the Washington Post the letter was "bogus and outrageous".

Ms Swetnick accuses Judge Kavanaugh of involvement in alleged drugging and sexual assault of girls at house parties in the 1980s.

Is the FBI inquiry about to end?
The FBI's confidential investigation is due to be completed by Friday, but some reports have suggested it could be completed as early as Wednesday.

According to US media reports, at least five people have been questioned so far. Four of those interviewed attended a 1 July 1982 event which was listed on a calendar that Mr Kavanaugh has produced to show what he did at the time.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate must vote on confirming Mr Kavanaugh this week.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.πŸ––

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2018 at 2:54pm
a least some of you Yanks got integrity ......
'
unlike your

                      PUSSY GRABBING PERVERT OF A LEADER............
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.πŸ––

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2018 at 5:00pm



Up until recently, I saw Americans as brash, boisterous and somewhat childish, but also reliable, caring and fundamentally like us Brits/Irish. Despite everything, our values were the same and our societies strove to improve, evolve and better themselves along similar lines. I even saw Trump as a blip, soon to be forgotten in a system too well designed to be destroyed by one despotic pig. I even envied the Americans for having a written constitution: - and a great one at that.

Obviously, I think Trump's policies deeply flawed. But that is not what worries me. I see Americans behaving selfishly, mysogenistically, devisively and frequently violently. That does not tally with the people I thought I knew. No one seems to have any understanding left which does not involve an unhealthy dollop of xenophobia.

Democrats believe Blaisey-Ford. Republicans believe Kavanagh. Why have you all made up your minds before the FBI has finished its investigation? Do none of you believe your intelligence services/justice system relevant at all?

On ballance, knowing what I know about historical trauma, I can see why Ford could have held back. But that is evidence of nothing, except the disgusting judgementalism of those who have never worn similar shoes.
How do you tell if a politician is lying?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EdwinSm, Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2018 at 10:27pm
Well Trump seems to have difficulty remembering certain things like getting over $400 million from his father, claiming only that he had a $1 million loan that was paid back with interest.


See: Trump taxes: New York authorities examine president's tax affairshttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45727617

From one job in bookkeeping/accounting I know that bosses can do things that I find morally repugnant, but are still acting within the legal framework. There is not enough information in the article (and I don't know enough of US tax law) for me to make a decision as to whether this accusation will lead to anything, or if they have been cleaver enough to play the system (which seems to have been set up to be in favour of the rich in the first place)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DeepThinker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2018 at 10:14am
How else do you expect Trump to get the mainstream media to talk about her allegations being uncorroborated and unsubstantiated?   Everyone but fox presented her as being credible.   Yes it was insensitive by Trump, but it got the truth out there.   Trump didn't say anything untrue.

In the USA you do not destroy somebodies professional life because of one persons inconsistent memory.    I feed bad for Ford because she has been victimized by both sides but she doesn't have enough evidence to do what the democrats want her to do.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DeepThinker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2018 at 10:30am
Technophobe... Do you remember way back in school when you had a class clown?   As long as one person was acting crazy, everyone else had free reign to do what they want.   Only the class clown will get in trouble, as long as you don't attract more attention than him/her.

This is exactly what his happening in American politics.   Yes Trump is the class clown.   However because Trump acts that way it gives the Democrats license to be just as crazy.   The craziness you see is the resistance to Trump as much as it is Trump himself.

Trumps resistance is just as crazy, petty and untruthful as him.   Please make sure everybody gets their fair share of the blame.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DeepThinker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2018 at 10:59am
If you want proof that Trumps tactics are effective just look at this thread.     I didn't want to post it...   but I have been waiting weeks for a thread on this subject here.    Very interesting that it only happened after Trumps comments.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2018 at 2:35pm
if you dont disagree with something that someone says then you ,are seen to agree with that statement ,

thats why i post after Chump spouts his crap,

i disagree with the way he behaves ,as far as im concerned he is not a fit person to be the president ,

if the American people want him as their leader , thats up to them ,

but it makes the American people look...........

Loud , Crass, No Manners,Bullies.....

and thats what people around the world   have always thought..............

i know thats not true for all Yanks, but thats what is being portrade to the world via Chump

sorry just saying..................

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.πŸ––

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2018 at 3:07pm
with this supreme court thing,

how on earth can this Kavanaugh be an impartial judge after all of this

i dont know what happened at that party ,

i'v been to lots of different types of parties and ive been around ,

my opinion in all this based on a few years under my belt is ,

some people do ,some people dont ,some people need a lot of loving ,some dont,

ie,every man woman are different , what some like some dont ,

at a young age people experiment ,

they find out whats expected of them and how to behave ,

you go to a pool party, things happen you dont agree with , you find out Mom and Dad was right ....

when they said "dont mix with that crowd"

you put it down to a Life experience,and dont go again .............

im not saying what happened was right or wrong ,

but for Ford it was a traumatic experience,

for someone else they may just walked away and moved on.........

People are different,Men ,Women.....

different races see thing different to how you or I would,

i see things different to you ,

the art is having compassion and an open mind ,

and an understanding that what you say or do might be having an affect on someone that you never meant ,and giving you a "bad look " in that persons eyes or that communities eyes.....

thats why you have diplomats.............






Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.πŸ––

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2018 at 4:34pm
I don't believe the truth IS out there. The FBI was not even given permission to interview either main party. Permission from the white house was needed to interview Blaisey -Ford or Kavanaugh. A week is a bit short for such an investigation as well. This looks very partisan to me; that is not just on the Republican side either.

Several points occur to me.

Both accuser and accused appeared credible - yet someone must be lying. So who? Kavanaugh had more reason to lie - but that is not proof, not even a shred of it.

The attitude of Kavanaugh and the majority of those backing him seemed very dismissive of women in general, I even heard the revolting statement that "Bundy passed the lie detector" as if that was proof that Ford was lying. (Psychopaths easily pass lie detectors, as they lack certain remorse/guilt reactions common in the rest of us. Unless Ford is a psychopath, that is both an unfair comparison and a very insulting one.)

The witnesses for Kavanaugh were friends of his. They have reason to lie to protect their friend. The other two women who said Kavanaugh assaulted them at best had good reason and at worst had only political capital to gain.

I suspect Ford was rather drunk on the night in question. Speaking as a woman, I totally get the horror of being overpowered. All women know men can do this. We find it out early in life. Unless we have been reasonably lucky in our dating past and are now still lucky in our chosen partner, that is a persistent souce of fear. Even date-rape leaves an ugly scar. The fairer sex is a stupid description, but we are the weaker one. That is why men are expected to be a bit gentlemanly. Even if Kavanaugh is innocent, he is still a cad for his treatment of his accuser.

Finally. This is not a court of law decision. I truly believe that to be the upholder of justice you need to be held to a higher standard of behaviour than everyone else.

I honestly do not know who is telling the truth. I do think Kavanaugh is a poor choice for the honour of this position and an insult to the faith people need to have in the justice system.



Yes, Trump is astonishingly effective at all things business. He is just an appaling excuse for a human being as well. (With refrence to my earlier statement, I bet he could ace a lie detector test - yes I am being insulting!) Just because a system works is not reason enough, alongside; "Can I do it?" you chould also ask "Should I?"
How do you tell if a politician is lying?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2018 at 4:42pm
I often played class clown. I never got in much trouble, became a prefect and house captain, passed all my exams (except for geography), was well liked and walked off with several cups and some honourable mentions. Some far more "dignified" girls were expelled, gated and suspended.

Even my house came top while I led it.
How do you tell if a politician is lying?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CRS, DrPH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2018 at 5:55pm
The American system is unique due to its checks & balances....OK, so Kavanaugh will be affirmed to the US Supreme Court, it was pretty much baked in, even though past Justices (John Paul Stevens), law professors and others objected.

Let's see what Old Glory is made of! We have mid-term elections coming up - if the liberal Democratic party is so motivated, they will retake the House of Representatives (and perhaps even the higher Senate), in which case, they can engage in all sorts of investigations of this guy.

I believe he committed perjury on far more than these high-school charges, and a Dem controlled House could put this all on the table, forcing impeachment. If the evidence is strong enough, the Republicans in the Senate might have to go along with it, or face the wrath of the voting public.

Or not. Hang tight, the fate of the entire planet depends upon what happens in the next few months!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DeepThinker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2018 at 12:08am
The problem with Miss Ford story is that she has no one that can vouch for her. As a matter of fact her ex-boyfriend has some nasty things to say about her (LOL I know an ex so take it for what its worth) There is no evidence that she EVER mentioned Kavanaugh as her attacker by name until very recently. If she mentioned him in her therapy don't you think they would have shown it?    I can buy a woman being attacked an not going to the police.   I can also see her not wanting to talk about it for quite some time.   However I have a hard time believing this could happen to her and her not tell a single soul her whole life.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2018 at 12:46am
No arguments from me there, DT. I honestly don't know who is lying. It could even be both!

My objection is fairly simple. If Kavanaugh was on trial personally (had he been accused for an actual prosecutuion) "reasonable doubt" should let him walk free. But that is not the case here. As an upholder of justice he should embody its principles; there should be no room for doubt at all. The higher the position, the more stringent the checks to pass should be.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2018 at 1:00am
By the way, our system is no better. We have had mysogenists, racists, crooks and idiots in similar positions. They also got there via the "old boys network".

We treat them the same. Eventually they get driven out by us "common folk" and theit misapplications of justice are sorted out over time. The innocent get released and compensated. But the crooks who walked free, stay free and the damage to the innocent is already done; some even catch the crimminality bug in prision.

So always speak up. When the wrong sort hold power the innocent suffer. It is bad eough here, we can heal some wounds, but you even have the death penalty! That won't clear up if missapplied!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DeepThinker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2018 at 9:56am
How can you ever know beyond a doubt when all it takes is one woman to make an unsubstantiated claim from 30 years ago.

It should be very simple.    Kavanough has a long professional history of public service.   That is what you primarily go buy... for the personal stuff trust the FBI background check they are VERY thorough.   He had been through 6 plus this supplemental one.

Here is the thing though Trump didn't need to nominate Kavanaugh...   If he had any doubt in Bretts ability to do the job there are a dozen others that are extremely qualified that he could have also picked.

While I do not know Miss Fords personal story or motivation.   I can see the way the democrats reacted. The way Feinstein kept this allegations secret till the last minute then leaked it to the press even though apparently the accuser wanted to remain anonymous. Miraculously Miss Ford found herself with legal services that she doesn't know how she got them or who paid. Then they lie about her fear of flying.   The whole thing was very clearly a political stunt.

If Feinstein had come clean from the beginning and the republicans where concerned about the allegations Trump would have just nominated someone else and their delay tactic wouldn't have worked. Obviously though this isn't what the democrats wanted.



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2018 at 11:13am

3 women - and people change after puberty.

The Democrats did jump on this with unseemly haste AND I think it shoud fail the "reasonable doubt" test. But this is an exalted position. Therefore, in my opinion, the bar should be much higher than reasonable doubt.

Just one of these three allegations would be enough to prevent him from adopting, because the family courts would not allow the risk to one single child. His forthcoming actions will affect the lives of many people. Should the bar for this office not be higher still?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DeepThinker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2018 at 12:10pm
"3 women" With one of the others even if it was true I don't think it disqualifies Kavanaugh... The other allegation is just absurd.   The accuser and/or her lawyer will probably face legal trouble over it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jacksdad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2018 at 12:43pm
Actually, the bar has dropped considerably in the past few days.


"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2018 at 1:18pm
Originally posted by DeepThinker DeepThinker wrote:

    I can buy a woman being attacked an not going to the police.   I can also see her not wanting to talk about it for quite some time.   However I have a hard time believing this could happen to her and her not tell a single soul her whole life.


I think it's completely plausible that a woman has kept an assault secret and never told anyone. That's what the #metoo movement is all about. In the past many women weren't believed, and, to add insult to injury, were ridiculed in the process and made to think it was their own fault.

What makes me find this witness more than credible is that she is an educated, successful woman who has never sort the limelight in her life. Why on earth would anyone come out with false allegations and open themselves up to death threats and public humiliation.

The point that must be borne in mind about this is that, at high school, Brett Kavenaugh, along with his friend or friends, thought that harrassing and groping women was fine - a laugh even, something that they could do and get away with, and it is this contempt for women's feelings and the law that must be a fundamental part of his character, and therefore he can't hold a position in law if he doesn't, deep down, respect and uphold every part of the law.

And before you say that all men do things in high school they wouldn't do now and it was just high jinks and back then these things were ok, everyone did them. You're wrong. I know men who were like that, but also many more who weren't - who've grown up into solid, reliable, trustworthy men and who have nothing in their background that they are ashamed of or would want to keep secret.

It's not one woman who has called Kavenaugh out, it's 3. And I bet there are more who haven't come forward. I'm sure he regrets his behaviour now, I'm sure he looks at his own daughters and thought how he'd hate anyone to assault them. I'm sure he was a jerk at high school, but just because it was 40 years ago, it doesn't make it alright.
Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2018 at 3:29pm
HEAR,HEAR Kiwimum,

well said ,you only have to look how long its taken to "OUT "

the RAPIST Pedophille MEN OF GOD........

some of the people abused by these sick B's

have taken 40 years to come forward
,

yes Jacksdad the Bar has dropped ,not over the last few days ,but ever since Trump got power..............

i'm sure as the Doc said things will right themselves ,

now is the time for REAL MEN to speak up ,

AND SAY "NOT IN MY NAME "

Chump says "think of your sons"

i say think of your mothers and daughters

and teach boys how to behave...........

Deepthinker you need to go contemplate , the wise words of the Ladies of this forum




some reasons Why Don't Victims of Sexual Harassment Come Forward Sooner?
These are eight reasons why victims of sexual harassment don't come forward.
Posted Nov 16, 2017


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People seem to ask this question every time a high-profile sexual harassment or assault case is reported. Cases like the recent article from Washington Post detailing allegations against Roy Moore, Alabama’s Republican candidate for Senate, seems to have offered fresh opportunities to perpetuate victim blaming. It is amazing how many people shift the blame onto alleged victims, asking why they waited until now.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports receiving 12,000 allegations of sex-based harassment each year, with women accounting for about 83 percent of the complainants. That figure is believed to be just the tip of the iceberg. In a study issued last year, the co-chairwomen of a commission task force said that roughly three to four people experiencing such harassment never tell anyone in authority about it. Instead, they said women typically β€œavoid the harasser, deny or downplay the gravity of the situation, or attempt to ignore, forget, or endure the behavior.”

It is indeed very common for victims to delay disclosing their trauma, if they ever do. But since even highly educated people are continually baffled by why women don’t come forward, I offer some information based on the psychology of abuse and my forty-year experience working with victims of sexual abuse, sexual assault, and sexual harassment to help answer this question.

Let’s begin by making sure we are all on the same page. Sexual harassment and behaviors that fall under this category include: inappropriate touching; invasion of privacy; sexual jokes; lewd or obscene comments or gestures; exposing body parts; showing graphic images; unwelcome sexual emails, text messages, or phone calls; sexual bribery, coercion, and overt requests for sex; sexual favoritism; being offered a benefit for a sexual favor; being denied a promotion or pay raise because you didn’t cooperate. And of course, some women experience what more aptly could be described as sexual assault: being forced to perform oral sex on a man in a position of power, a man in power forcing himself on the woman either orally, vaginally, or anally, being drugged and rendered unconscious or incapable of defending oneself.    

Below I have listed the most significant reasons why women do not come forward more often or delay in coming forward. While I recognize that men are also sexually harassed and assaulted, due to limited space, I am going to limit this article to a discussion about female victims of sexual harassment and assault. Male victims do, however, suffer from many of the same after-effects and have many of the same reasons for not coming forward.

Shame

One of the primary reasons women don’t come forward to report sexual harassment or assault is shame. Shame is at the core of the intense emotional wounding women and men experience when they are sexually violated. As expert on shame Gershen Kaufman aptly stated in his book Shame: The Power of Caring, β€œShame is a natural reaction to being violated or abused. In fact, abuse, by its very nature, is humiliating and dehumanizing.” This is especially true with sexual violations. The victim feels invaded and defiled, while simultaneously experiencing the indignity of being helpless and at the mercy of another person.

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This sense of shame often causes victims to blame themselves for the sexual misconduct of their perpetrator. Case in point, Lee Corfman, the woman who reported to a Washington Post reporter that she was molested by Roy Moore when she was 14, said, β€œI felt responsible. I thought I was bad.” Time after time, clients who experienced sexual harassment at work or at school have told me things like: β€œI assumed it was my fault. I’m a very friendly person, and I always smiled and said hello to my boss. I think he must have thought I was flirting with him.” Another client, a student who was sexually assaulted by one of her college professors told me, β€œI liked all the attention I was getting from him. We’d sit for hours in his office talking, and I was learning a lot from him. I guess I was sending him the wrong message.”

Understanding more about the emotion of shame can help explain why women blame themselves when they are violated, and why more women do not report sexual assault or harassment. Shame is a feeling deep within us of being exposed and unworthy. When we feel ashamed, we want to hide. We hang our heads, stoop our shoulders, and curve inward as if trying to make ourselves invisible. Most people who have been deeply shamed take on the underlying and pervasive belief that they are defective or unacceptable. They feel unworthy, unlovable, or β€œbad.” Shame can also cause us to feel isolated β€” set apart from the crowd. In fact, in primitive cultures, people were banished from the tribe when they broke society’s rules. Being shamed feels like being banished β€” unworthy to be around others.

Sexual harassment and assault can be a humiliating experience to recount privately, let alone publicly. Victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault in adulthood or sexual abuse in childhood tend to feel shame, because as human beings, we want to believe that we have control over what happens to us. When that personal power is challenged by a victimization of any kind, we feel humiliated. We believe we should have been able to defend ourselves. And because we weren’t able to do so, we feel helpless and powerless. This powerlessness causes humiliation β€” which leads to shame.

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It is often easier to blame oneself than to admit that you were rendered helpless or victimized by another person. As humans, we want to believe that we are in control of our own lives. When something that occurs reminds us that, in fact, we are not always in control, it is very upsetting. So upsetting that we would prefer to blame ourselves for our victimization.

Women, in particular, feel shame, because they are often blamed for being sexually assaulted. Even today, women are accused of causing their own victimization with comments like, β€œWhat did she expect when she dresses like she does?” and β€œShe shouldn’t have had so much to drink.”

And women are used to being shamed and feeling shame. Women feel shame when they are heckled by men on the street. They feel shame when men make fun of their body or make disparaging remarks about the size of their breasts or behinds. They feel shame when their entire being is reduced to how attractive or unattractive a man finds them.

This sense of shame has a cumulative effect. Depending on how much a woman has already been shamed by previous abuse or by bullying, she may choose to try to forget the entire incident, to put her head in the sand and try to pretend it never happened.

Denial, Minimization

This tendency to blame themselves and to be overwhelmed with shame leads into the next important reason why women don’t come forward: denial and minimization. Many women refuse to believe that the treatment they endured was actually abusive. They downplay how much they have been harmed by sexual harassment and even sexual assault. They convince themselves that β€œit wasn’t a big deal.” As one client told me, β€œI know a lot of women who were brutally raped, and I have friends who were sexually abused in childhood. Being sexually harassed by my boss was nothing compared to what these women went through. I told myself to just move on and forget the whole thing.”

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Unfortunately, this same client had come to see me because she was suffering from depression. She couldn’t sleep at night, she had no appetite, she had lost her motivation, and she had isolated herself from friends and family. When we traced these symptoms back, we discovered that they all began after the sexual harassment incident. Depression is one of the major after-effects of sexual harassment or assault. Victims may experience self-doubt, which can lead to self-blame, and the hopelessness of the situation can also lead to depression.

Other women are good at making excuses for their abusers. I have often heard victims of sexual harassment say things like β€œI felt sorry for him,” or β€œI figured he wasn’t getting enough sex at home," or even β€œI knew he couldn’t help himself.”

And finally, women convince themselves that they are the only victim of a sexual harasser or abuser. It is often only after other women step forward to say that they were abused by a perpetrator that a victim may realize that they are dealing with a serial abuser or pedophile. For example, Beverly Young Nelson recently went on TV to tell her story of how Roy Moore sexually attacked her when she was 16 and said, β€œI thought I was Roy Moore’s only victim."

Fear of the Consequences

Fear of the repercussions is a huge obstacle women face when it comes to reporting sexual harassment or assault β€” fear of losing their job, fear they won’t find another job, fear they will be passed over for a promotion, fear of losing their credibility, fear of being branded a troublemaker, fear of being blackballed in their industry, fear of their physical safety. This is true whether it is a case of a young woman in her first job being harassed, an actress trying to make her way in the entertainment business, or a career woman desperately trying to break through the glass ceiling.

Many don’t disclose, because they fear they won’t be believed, and until very recently, that has primarily been the case. The fact that sexual misconduct is the most under-reported crime is due to a common belief that women make up these stories for attention or to get back at a man who rejected them. Victims' accounts are often scrutinized to the point of exhaustion. In high-profile cases, victims are often labeled opportunists, blamed for their own victimization, and punished for coming forward.

Another reason why victims don’t report or delay reporting is that they fear retaliation, and we have evidence from recent events to validate that fear. Sexual harassers frequently threaten the lives, jobs, and careers of their victims. And many victims are frightened by the perpetrator’s position of power and what he could do with it. Those who have reported sexual harassment or assault, especially by powerful men, have reported that they lost their jobs, and that their careers or reputations have been destroyed. In the case of Harvey Weinstein, the New Yorker reported that he enlisted private security agencies staffed with β€œhighly experienced and trained in Israel’s elite military and government intelligence units” to collect information on women and journalists who tried to expose sexual harassment allegations against him. This fear of retaliation does not only apply to high-profile cases; people who wield their power to prey on other people are often quite adept at holding onto that power by any means necessary. Sexual harassment cuts across all industries β€” Hollywood, politics, media, tech, and service industries, like food services.

Low Self-Esteem

Some victims have such low self-esteem that they don’t consider what happened to them to be very serious. They don’t value or respect their own bodies or their own integrity, so if someone violates them, they downplay it. As one client who had been sexually violated by a boss when she was in her early twenties shared with me: β€œGuys were always coming on to me and trying to grab me back then. When my boss did it, I figured, β€˜Why not let him do what he wants, no big deal.’” But my client had not anticipated what the short-term and long-term consequences of β€œgiving herself away” might be. β€œWhen I look back, I can recognize that my boss violating me was a real turning point in my life. After that, I started acting out. I had never taken drugs before, but when someone offered me some cocaine, I thought, β€˜Why not?’ When guys wanted to party, including having group sex, I figured, β€˜What have I got to lose?’ I just stopped caring about myself.”

Sexual violations wound a woman’s self-esteem, self-concept, and sense of self. The more a girl or woman puts up with, the more her self-image becomes distorted. Little by little, acts of disrespect, objectification, and shaming whittle away at her self-esteem until she has little regard for herself and her feelings. There is a huge price to pay for β€œgoing along” with sexual exploitation. A woman doesn’t just give away her body; she gives away her integrity.

In the last several years there has been a focus on raising the self-esteem of girls and young women. We want our young women to feel proud and strong, to walk with their heads held high. We try to instill confidence in them and tell them they can do whatever they set their minds to do. We send them off to college with the feeling that they are safe, that they can protect themselves, and that we will protect them. But this is a lie. They are not safe, they don’t know how to protect themselves, and we don’t protect them.

By far the most damaging thing to affect the self-esteem of young girls and women is the way they are mistreated in our culture. Beginning in early childhood, the average girl experiences unwanted sexual remarks and sexual behavior from boys and men. Remarks about her body and her sexuality come from boys at school and from men on the streets. Young girls today continually complain that they are bullied in school β€” not in the way we think of boys bullying other boys β€” but by boys making remarks about their genitals, their behinds, and as they get older, about their breasts. In today’s schools, there is a common practice of boys running by girls and grabbing their behinds or breasts and running away.

Even the most confident girl cannot sustain her sense of confidence if she is sexually violated. She feels so much shame that it is difficult to hold her head up high. She finds it difficult to have the motivation to continue on her path, whether it be college or a career.

Feelings of Hopelessness and Helplessness

Research has shown us that victims who cannot see a way out of an abusive situation soon develop a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, and this in turn contributes to them giving up and not trying to escape or seek help. Specifically, learned helplessness is a condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed and considered to be one of the underlying causes of depression. A concept originally developed by the research of psychologist Martin Seligman and Steven D. Meier, learned helplessness is a phenomenon that says when people feel like they have no control over what happens, they tend to simply give up and accept their fate.

Women feel it is useless to come forward, because they have seen the way others have been treated. They feel it is hopeless, because they won’t be believed, and their reputations will be tainted, if not ruined. Women who have already been sexually assaulted or harassed feel especially helpless, since the chances are extremely high that they did not receive the justice they so desperately needed. These fears can cause women to think there is nowhere to turn, to feel trapped and even hopeless.

Most women feel they are on their own when it comes to protecting themselves from sexual harassment. While they may take precautions to protect themselves, overall, they still feel helpless about changing the situation. Many women have learned the hard way that going to the HR in their company is useless, since HR departments are notorious for protecting the company at all costs.

As mentioned above, many women are overwhelmed with self-blame and debilitating shame due to sexual harassment. This self-blame and debilitating shame robs them of their power, their sense of efficacy and agency, and their belief that they can change their circumstances.

Some women don’t have the emotional strength to stand up to intense manipulation, to sexual pressure, or to threats of rejection. While they may take precautions against being sexually assaulted, from avoiding walking alone at night, to avoiding eye contact, to carrying pepper spray in their handbags, measures such as these don’t take away their overarching fear, brought on by witnessing and experiencing the consistent objectification of women, as well as evidence of the rape culture which currently permeates our country. In a recent study, researchers found that the treatment of women as sex objects has shown to contribute to women’s fear of sexual assault. According to Dr. Laurel Watson, a psychology professor specializing in trauma at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, β€œOur research supports previous findings that the rampant sexual objectification of women, what some consider an act of sexual terrorism, can heighten women’s fear of incurring physical and sexual harm.”

A History of Being Sexually Violated

Closely related to the above, women who have already been traumatized by child sexual abuse or by sexual assault as an adult are far less likely to speak out about sexual harassment at work or at school. Research shows that survivors of previous abuse and assault are at a higher risk of being sexually assaulted again. For example, research shows that 38 percent of college-aged women who have been sexually violated had first been victimized prior to college.

Those who experienced previous abuse will likely respond to overtures of sexual harassment much differently than women who have not been abused. As one client shared with me, β€œTime after time I just freeze when a guy makes a sexual advance, hoping it will stop him or he will walk away.” This β€œfreezing reaction” is a common one for those who were sexually abused in childhood. And as was mentioned above, those who have previously been victimized are more likely to keep quiet about the abuse, since they may have already had the experience of not being believed and not receiving justice.

Lack of Information

Recent statistics show that 70 percent of women suffer sexual harassment on the job. In fact, the stats for sexual harassment are the same as those for sexual assault: one in every four women nationwide have been sexually harassed at work. And yet many women, even highly educated ones, are uneducated about exactly what constitutes sexual harassment, don’t recognize sexual harassment as a real threat, don’t understand how sexual harassment or assault affected them, nor do they understand the real world consequences of not reaching out for help or not reporting it. For example, the emotional effects of this type of harassment can have devastating psychiatric effects, including:

Anxiety
Loss of self-esteem
PTSD β€” Studies have found a link between victims of sexual harassment and PTSD, which causes the victim to re-live the harassment and avoid situations where it could happen again.
Suicidal behavior β€” Studies suggest that sexual harassment can lead to suicidal behavior. Up to 15 of 1,000 females studied reported saying they made suicidal attempts after suffering from some sort of sexual harassment.
Disbelief, Dissociated, or Drugged

Finally, sometimes women don’t report sexual harassment or assault, because at the time of the abuse they were drugged, inebriated, or dissociated. As was the case with the Bill Cosby accusers β€” it is not uncommon for women and girls to have been drugged by their abusers and, because of this, to have only vague memories. Others may have been so drunk before the assault that they doubt their memories, and as we know, some are so traumatized that they dissociated during the attack and have only vague memories. It usually takes one woman coming forward before a woman is able to trust her own memories of the experience. Unless other women come forward to make a complaint about someone, most will continue doubting themselves and assuming they will be doubted if they report.

It is understandable that women have a difficult time coming forward for a number of reasons. These women deserve our recognition about how difficult it is and our compassion for what they have been through. Women need to be encouraged to begin to push away their internalized shame with anger and to learn how to give the shame back to their abusers.

Instead of focusing so much energy on trying to figure out why victims don’t report, it would be far more productive to ask, β€œWhy do we allow men to continue to sexually harass and assault women?” Perhaps even more important, we need to stop asking why victims wait to report and instead focus on how we can better support victims in their quest for justice and healing.

If you have been sexually harassed or assaulted and need someone to talk to, please contact the following:ding for you






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Home Β» Publications Β» Adult victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault
Adult victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault
Lara Fergus and Monique Keel

ACSSA Wrap No. 1 β€” November 2005
Adult victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault
Childhood sexual assault is a common, yet largely hidden crime. Though estimates of the number of Australian women and men sexually assaulted in childhood vary, as shall be seen below, there is no doubt that childhood sexual assault is one of the most prevalent abuses in our society. The negative impact that childhood sexual assault may have on victim/survivors in adulthood, including an increased risk of revictimisation, indicates the abuse carries an enormous social, as well as individual cost, and must give a sense of urgency to our responses.

There are many gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the experiences of adult victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault. Nevertheless, from the research and knowledge which does exist, it is possible to identify three main lines along which responses are hampered: a socio-familial climate which hinders disclosure of abuse, the failings of the criminal justice system, and insufficient resourcing of service provision.

What is childhood sexual assault?
The different state and territory governments use their own legal definitions, but child sexual assault is commonly considered to be any sexual activity between a child and an adult, or older person. This can include fondling genitals, masturbation, oral sex, vaginal or anal penetration by a penis, finger or any other object, fondling of breasts, voyeurism, exhibitionism and exposing or involving the child in pornography.

Many definitions of child sexual assault specify the age difference between the perpetrator and the child or young adult, as it is considered that young people are not able to make a free and informed decision (that is, consent) to engage in such sexual activities because of their lack of relative knowledge and power. However, concerns have been raised that definitions that specify age difference between the perpetrator and child or young person fail to take into account non-consensual sexual activity between peers (such as sibling sexual assault, and sexual assault and date-rape perpetrated by adolescents).

Who sexually assaults children, and how common is it?
Despite the widespread view that children are sexually assaulted mainly by strangers, the reality is that most sexual assault is perpetrated by someone who is known to the child, such as a family member, family friend, or person with whom the child comes into contact (Richardson and Bromfield 2005).

Information on prevalence of childhood sexual assault and the relationship of the perpetrator to the child comes largely from national population surveys, and of these the Australian component of the International Violence Against Women Survey, known as IVAWS (Mouzos and Makkai 2004), is the most recent and entails the largest survey population. It was conducted across Australia between December 2002 and June 2003, on a total of 6,677 women aged between 18 and 69 years. Eighteen per cent of women surveyed had experienced sexual violence before the age of 16 years (2 per cent by a parent and 16 per cent by someone other than a parent). The overwhelming majority of those abused by a parent were abused by fathers (only two women in the sample had been sexually abused by their mothers). Of those abused by someone other than a parent, 20 per cent of the perpetrators were friends or friends of the family, 17 per cent were acquaintances or neighbours, 13 per cent were strangers, 13 per cent were 'someone else known'. Uncles, brothers, grandfathers, cousins, other relatives and other children/ students comprised less than 10 per cent of perpetrators each.

In a smaller national random survey of 710 women (Fleming 1997), 144 women (20 per cent) had been sexually assaulted in childhood. In 14 of these cases, the assault involved either vaginal or anal intercourse (that is, 2 per cent of the sample population experienced such abuse). The mean age at first assault was ten years, and most (71 per cent) of the women were aged under 12 years at the time. Ninety-eight percent of the perpetrators were male, mostly known to the child, with 41 per cent being relatives. The mean age of abusers was 34 years, with a median age difference of 24 years from that of the abused individual.

To date, there has been no large-scale national population survey that includes childhood violence against males. This means information on the incidence of childhood sexual assault of boys comes mostly from reports of suspected child abuse made to statutory child protection departments. However, such data must be interpreted more conservatively than the population surveys, as it is well known that only a tiny fraction of cases of abuse are reported. In the latest report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW 2004), 4,137 substantiated cases of sexual abuse were reported nationally over the year 2002-2003. Sexual abuse accounted for between 7 per cent (in South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory) and 27 per cent (in Western Australia) of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect reported to child protection departments. In all jurisdictions (except the Australian Capital Territory) girls were approximately three times more likely than boys to be the subject of a substantiation of sexual abuse.

Doyle Peters, Wyatt and Finkelhor (1985) carried out a review consolidating the evidence of several smaller-scale international surveys, and found a range of between 6 and 62 per cent of females and 3 and 31 per cent of males were victims of child sexual abuse, depending on definitions, measures and data collection methods used. Fergusson and Mullen (1999) confirmed this range in an updated review, and stressed that the majority of studies suggested prevalence somewhere in the interval of between 15 and 30 per cent for females, and between 3 and 15 per cent for males. This seems to be the origin of the often-quoted figures: 'one in three women' and 'one in six men' are victims of childhood sexual assault.

Acknowledgement that children and adolescents may commit acts of sexual assault has only occurred relatively recently (Vizard, Monck and Misch 1995). The National Children's Home (1992, as cited in Masson 1995) reported that it is estimated that between one-quarter to one-third of sexual abuse cases in the United Kingdom are perpetrated by a child or young person.

Finkelhor and Russell (1984) concluded that, although males clearly constitute the majority of perpetrators, females do abuse in a small proportion of cases: approximately 5 per cent of female victims, and 20 per cent of male victims experience sexual abuse perpetrated by a female.

Little data exists on adult victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault from Indigenous communities. Stanley (2003) details the even greater difficulties in understanding such abuse in Indigenous communities than in the non-Indigenous population. She refers to the contribution of past and present trauma experienced by Indigenous people to the present problem of child sexual assault, as well as cultural clashes in child protection. According to Lievore's (2003: 56) recent literature review of available statistics on reported and unreported sexual assaults: 'Anecdotal evidence, case studies and submissions to inquiries support the assumption that sexual violence in Indigenous communities occurs at rates that far exceed those for non-Indigenous Australians.'

In response to the frequently asked question of why perpetrators offend, Wurtele and Miller-Perrin (1993: 20) remark that 'the only common denominators appear to be an offender's lack of sensitivity to the child's wishes and needs, along with a willingness to exploit the child's trust for the abuser's own gratification, profit or selfish purposes'. Tomison (1996) also notes that no single psychiatric disorder has been identified across the majority of offenders.

How do we know what we know?
There are four major sources of knowledge and data on childhood sexual assault:

Population surveys These are probably the most accurate source of information on prevalence of childhood sexual assault, but they obscure the contexts and life experiences of individual victim/survivors.
Accounts by victim/survivors These detail experiences of childhood sexual assault and the effects on survivors' lives. They do not, in themselves, reveal how prevalent such experiences are, nor the extent to which individual experiences are typical, although the latter may be theorised in accompanying socio-structural analyses.
Clinical studies These look for common features in cases of childhood sexual assault and, as such, lend themselves to generalisation, although this is limited by the medical and/or psychological focus of their frameworks.
Official data This includes reports to statutory child protection departments and police statistics.The limitations associated with these sources include gross levels of under-reporting; few cases being substantiated, because of lack of physical evidence (which is rare); and under-representation of the extent to which child abuse is committed by biological parents (Wallis 1992).
What are the effects on victim/survivors?
In 1992 Judith Herman likened the effects of childhood sexual assault on survivors to the effects of war on combatants. Many studies since have documented correlations between childhood sexual assault and adverse psychological and social outcomes such as increased depression, anxiety disorders, antisocial behaviour, substance abuse, eating disorders, suicidal behaviour, and post-traumatic stress disorder (Dinwiddie et al. 2000; Fergusson, Lynskey and Horwood 1996; Mullen, Martin, Anderson, Romans and Herbison 1994). Fergusson and Mullen's 1999 review cautions, however, that the influence of childhood sexual assault may be confounded by other factors such as the disturbed and disadvantageous family backgrounds in which abuse may occur. Mullen and Fleming (1998) advance the hypothesis that the fundamental damage inflicted by child sexual assault is to the child's developing capacities for trust, intimacy, agency and sexuality, and that many of the mental health problems of adult life associated with histories of abuse are second-order effects. Fergusson and Mullen suggest that such correlations are by no means inevitable, and that a substantial minority (up to 40 per cent) of victim/survivors may not have any adverse psychological or social outcomes at all, as many of the negative outcomes may be lessened by appropriate social and emotional support immediately following the assault and later in life.

A disturbing and yet common effect of childhood sexual assault is increased risk of revictimisation. Mouzos and Makkai (2004) found that the risk of sexual violence in adulthood doubles for women who were abused as a child (54 per cent versus 26 per cent). The 1996 survey, Women's Safety Australia (ABS 1996), found that a history of violent victimisation, either as a child or adult, was a strong predictor of future victimisation regardless of age, educational attainment, employment status, income or marital status. Again, revictimisation is not inevitable. Mouzos and Makkai (2004) report that a minority of women (22 per cent) who were victimised as children stated that that they had not experienced any physical and/or sexual victimisation since the age of 16. The authors contend that this may depend on the severity and frequency of the violence experienced as a child, and/or on the child's resiliency and ability to cope with the situation. Lobmann, Greve, Wetzels and Bosold (2003) note that various coping mechanisms or 'protective factors' (such as the child receiving support from teachers and friends) are able to buffer or palliate the negative impact of violence victimisation and/or assist in overcoming the after-effects.

In any discussion of the effects of childhood sexual assault on victim/survivors, it is important to remember Scott, Walker and Gilmore's (1990) warning against 'an overemphasis on 'individual-pathology', which alternates between blaming the victim, the victim's mother, dysfunctional families, or simply defines the offender as deviant'. Without minimising the enormous harm childhood sexual assault causes to individual victim/survivors, they suggest it remains imperative to focus on the social climate in which abuse occurs, and in which victim/survivors are largely denied support, if these harms are to be adequately addressed (Scott, Walker and Gilmore 1990).

Service responses
Although the gaps in knowledge about how to respond to survivors of childhood sexual assault are significant, in recent years there have been several texts published that are designed to assist counsellor/advocates who work with victim/ survivors (Bullen, Jacobs, Le Pont, Martin and Smith 2004; Holden 2002; Mann 2004; Rokvic 2002; Stojadinovic 2003). However, the effectiveness of many therapeutic responses to childhood sexual assault has not been evaluated. Fergusson and Mullen (1999) suggest that treatment is complicated by the fact that child sexual assault is not a disorder, but rather an assumed cause of disorder, making it difficult to determine treatment objectives, methods, and assessments. Furthermore, a gendered understanding of childhood sexual assault has not been widely incorporated into mainstream thinking in this area, and myths surrounding childhood sexual assault prevail within society and often impact on the delivery of services to survivors (Rokvic 2002).

In 2002, Women's Health Statewide in South Australia conducted a research project that explored the current service needs of adults subjected to sexual assault during childhood, resulting in the report It's Still Not My Shame. Findings of this report (Holden 2002: 21) highlighted the issues and needs for adult survivors and workers as follows:

' The demand for counselling and group services by adult survivors continues to be high, with many services in the government and non-government sector reporting they are unable to respond to a large number of requests for services.
There is a lack of a coordinated approach to issues of childhood sexual abuse for adult survivors in relation to service provision, training and policy issues.
Limited training opportunities exist for workers in this area, including basic and advanced childhood sexual abuse training.
There is no specialist after hours crisis service.'
The report built on earlier research in 1994 by the South Australian Rape and Sexual Assault Service (now known as Yarrow Place), which culminated in the original It's Not My Shame report (Women's Health Statewide 1994), as well as the 1991 Strategies for Change report by Moira Carmody (1991). All three reports have identified the need for a lead agency/specialist service for adult victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault. Holden (2002: 22) notes that without such an agency there remains a continuing lack of coordination around service delivery, training and community education, resulting in:

'Limited identification of the health cost associated with poor coordination between services dealing with childhood sexual abuse, mental health and other related issues such as domestic violence.
The needs of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse not being reflected in policy development, organisational strategic planning and subsequent service delivery.
Limited encouragement of research and community education strategies, including prevention.
Inadequate development of comprehensive training for allied health workers and limited opportunities to warehouse appropriate literature or amass a body of knowledge or expertise for workers to access.
Lack of a systematic approach to informing health planners and purchasers of services about current service trends and issues for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.'
While victim/survivor accounts have assisted in raising awareness of childhood sexual assault, reports like It's Still Not My Shame, as well as testimonies from organisations around the country (Basham 2005; Lawson 2004), indicate that further funding by state governments is needed to provide more dedicated and appropriate services. While there is a small number of organisations around Australia that provide counselling support for childhood sexual assault survivors, broadly speaking, the service needs of adult survivors are overlooked. Those seeking help from specialist sexual assault services are likely to be faced with long waiting periods before a counsellor is able to see them, or in some circumstances, may be advised that the service is unable to extend to victims of past assaults. This is largely due the nature of service agreements that restrict the core funding of services to areas that predominantly address the needs of recent victims of sexual assault, where crisis-care (including forensic care) and shortterm counselling models are prioritised.

Service provision for victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault
The Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault is aware that national service provision for adult victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault is yet to be adequately mapped, and that there are significant gaps in our knowledge. To this end, ACSSA will be compiling information and resources on service provision for adult victim/survivors. The information, to be reported through a later publication, will be sought via a survey to sexual assault, community and health services, building on state-based research such as It's Still Not My Shame (Holden 2002). The topics to be explored include the type of services organisations offer victim/survivors, the framework from which they work and the difficulties they face in providing assistance to victim/survivors. We look forward to being in contact with many of you over the coming months.

Barriers to reporting
Research shows that the majority of victim/survivors encounter a range of obstacles to reporting childhood sexual assault. Fleming's 1997 survey found that only 10 per cent of such experiences were ever reported to the police, a doctor or a helping agency (for example, community organisations, such as sexual assault services). Patricia Easteal's (1992) national survey of 2,852 self-selected victim/survivors of sexual assault found that a staggering 52.6 per cent of male respondents, and 37 per cent of female respondents, had not only not reported their abuse to police, but had never disclosed their abuse to anyone at all prior to the survey.

Neame and Heenan summarise from the testimonies of adult victim/survivors as to why, as children, they often felt unable to disclose: 'fear of family breakdown, a sense of ongoing responsibility for the safety of other children or family members, and fears for their own personal safety were all major reasons' (2003: 3, citing Rush 1980; Easteal 1994; Mullinar and Hunt 1997; Russell 1986). They also note the pervasive fear that if survivors do tell, they will not be believed (Neame and Heenan 2003). Evidence suggests the closer the relationship between an abused child and a perpetrator, the less likely it is that the abuse will be formally reported (Wallis 1992). According to Neame and Heenan, male victim/survivors of child sexual assault may be particularly reluctant to disclose their experiences 'because of community assumptions that have often labelled them as future perpetrators; as homosexual; or, because they fear being treated as social outcasts, liars, or as emotionally weak' (Neame and Heenan 2003: 4, citing Mezey and King 1989; Stott 2001).

Criminal justice responses
For many of the above reasons, official reports of rape and other sexual assault to police reflect a minority of all those victimised (ABS 1996; ABS 2002). However, Neame and Heenan (2003) note that reporting trends for victims of past sexual assault have increased considerably in the last eight years. According to the Victorian Law Reform Commission, for offences such as incest and other penetrative offences against children, almost one-third of reports (30.6 per cent) were in relation to assaults that occurred more than five years ago (VLRC 2003), compared with a mere 1.7 per cent ten years ago (Victorian Community Council Against Violence 1991). Most victims of incest and other penetrative offences who are involved in court proceedings are now adults, or nearing adulthood (VLRC 2003). An increase in rape prosecutions involving close family members was noted by Heenan and McKelvie in 1997, though the proportion of cases resulting in prosecution remained low. Almost one-fifth of the 282 incidents they examined in case files involved immediate family members as offenders, including fathers and stepfathers (Heenan and McKelvie 1997).

The fact that only a small proportion of childhood sexual assault cases will ever result in prosecution has been blamed, at least partially, on structures within law that continue to prejudice the outcomes of sexual offence cases (Mack 1998; Taylor 2004). Neame and Heenan (2003: 4-5) note that proponents of law reform have particularly criticised: 'the continued use of corroboration warnings, where judges routinely caution juries against convicting unless other evidence can independently support the victim's version of events. This substantially impacts on cases involving adult survivors who in recounting . . . childhood sexual assault often have nothing more than their sworn testimonies to convince juries of the accused's guilt.'

In other criminal proceedings where the prosecution must establish the accused's guilt through the oral evidence of a single witness, corroboration warnings are nevertheless usually considered unnecessary in the face of the high standard of proof ('beyond reasonable doubt'), and the standards of testing the evidence through cross-examination. Feminist legal scholars and other advocates of abolishing the corroboration warning have suggested that judges' use of the warning in childhood sexual assault cases is a reflection of the systemic prejudice that 'women and children, especially girl-children, possess a seemingly natural propensity to lie about sexual abuse and to fabricate allegations' (Taylor 2004: 5).

Taylor also highlights what she perceives as the failure of the criminal justice system to understand delayed disclosure of sexual assault and its association with so-called victim acquiescence - 'especially in long-term sexual abuse cases, these responses occur as a consequence of the offender's conduct and trauma-induced suffering of the victim. Very often complex and perhaps counter-intuitive behaviours manifested by traumatised children are simply interpreted as evidence of the falsity of the alleged charge(s)' (Taylor 2004: 292). The access of adult victim/survivors to the variously-structured systems of 'compensation' (whether monetary or in terms of counselling and other support) is also hindered by this dismissal of delayed disclosure. Reporting to police within specified timeframes is a requirement of many 'compensation' systems, meaning that only a tiny proportion of adult victim/survivors are eligible for the benefits of such schemes. Indeed, a small number of counselling sessions may be the only compensation most adult victim/survivors can ever expect to be granted by the criminal justice system (Cumberland, Heenan and Gwynne 1998).

Where to now?
There are several gaps in our knowledge of childhood sexual assault, its effects on victim/survivors, and the effectiveness of various responses. In order to meet the needs of victim/survivors, a better understanding of the causal effects of such abuse on mental health and other health and social problems is required, along with a fuller knowledge of what factors act as buffers or exacerbate the impact of childhood sexual assault. There is also an urgent need for evaluations of the therapeutic responses to the abuse for both children and adults so that appropriate services can be developed. A better understanding of the health costs to victim/survivors, such as that developed for the VicHealth report, The Health Costs of Violence: Measuring the Burden of Disease Caused by Intimate Partner Violence (Victorian Health Promotion Foundation 2004), and of the costs of childhood sexual assault to society as a whole, along the lines of the Access Economics report, The Cost of Domestic Violence to the Australian Economy (2004), would be invaluable in documenting the wider health and social impacts of childhood sexual assault, and allow us to frame our responses accordingly.

Fear of not being believed and/or 'being responsible' for family breakdown are predominant in adult victim/survivors testimonies as to why they do not report or, in many cases, even disclose, sexual assault in childhood. These fears are linked to pervasive social myths about sexual assault, especially that women and children often lie about rape, and that their right to live free from such abuse can be sacrificed for the sake of 'keeping the family together'. As Easteal (1994: 1) notes: 'One of the only means available to reduce sexual assault and to enhance the probability that its victims will report it to authorities is through knocking down the false images of rape that act to perpetuate it in society.'

According to feminist legal theorists, not only do these myths act as barriers to disclosure, they are likely to be perpetuated by criminal justice responses following the reporting of childhood sexual assault (Taylor 2004). Low prosecution rates, unnecessary and misleading corroboration warnings, misunderstandings of delayed disclosure, and the silencing and revictimisation of complainants within the trial system have all been criticised as examples of the system's failure to deliver justice to sexual assault victim/survivors, especially those abused as children. Furthermore, the barriers to accessing the variously-structured systems of 'compensation' mean that few adult victim/survivors are likely to benefit from them. Recommendations for reform are plentiful (Heenan and McKelvie 1997; Taylor 2004; Mack 1998; VLRC 2003), but in most cases are yet to be implemented.

Indeed, the collective experiences of adult victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault indicate they are subject to consistent, systematic discrimination. Many fear disclosing the abuse out of fear they will not be believed, and, of those who do disclose, many report disbelief on the part of family and friends (Easteal 1994). Those who somehow find the courage to seek help from services are unlikely to receive the long-term support they need because of discriminatory funding guidelines. With all evidence indicating that significant numbers of Australian women and men are dealing with the physical, psychological and emotional after-effects of childhood sexual assault, it is essential that response measures to adult victim/ survivors be considerably expanded. Reports on service provision which do exist have consistently identified the need for a lead agency/specialist service for adult victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault (Carmody 1991; Holden 2002; Women's Health Statewide 1994). Over the coming year, ACSSA will be mapping existing service provision in this area throughout the country, with the aim of identifying good practice, along with the difficulties services face and the consequent gaps in current levels of provision.

References
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Dinwiddie, S., Heath, A.C., Dunne, M.P., Bucholz, K.K., Madden, P.A., Slutske, W.S., Bierut, L.J., Statham, D.B. and Martin, N.G. (2000), 'Early sexual abuse and lifetime psychopathology: A cotwin control study', Psychological Medicine, vol. 30, pp. 41-52.
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Finkelhor, D. and Russell, D. (1984), 'Women as perpetrators', in D. Finkelhor (ed.), Child sexual abuse: New theory and research (pp. 171-187), Free Press, New York.
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Holden, T. (2002), It's still not my shame: Adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse report, Women's Health Statewide, Women and Children's Hospital, Adelaide, and online at <http://www.whs.sa.gov.au/pub/Its_still_not_my_shame_report.pdf>;
Lawson, M. (2004), 'Tales from the dark side', Presented at the Home Truths: Stop Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Conference, Melbourne 15-17 September, available online at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/52391/20051020/hometruths.com.au/index.html
Lobmann, R., Greve, W., Wetzels, P. and Bosold, C. (2003), 'Violence against women: Conditions, consequences, and coping', Psychology, Crime and Law, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 309 - 331.
Mack, K. (1998), ''You should scrutinise her evidence with great care': Corroboration of women's testimony about sexual assault', in P. Easteal (ed.), Balancing the Scales: Rape, Law Reform and Australian Culture, The Federation Press, Sydney.
Masson, H. (1995), 'Children and adolescents who sexually abuse other children: Response to an emerging problem', Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, vol. 7, pp. 325-336.
Mezey, G. and King, M.B. (1989), 'The effects of sexual assault on adult males: A study of 22 victims', Psychological Medicine, vol. 19, pp. 205-209.
Mouzos, J. and Makkai, T. (2004), Women's experience of male violence: Findings from the Australian Component of the International Violence against Women Survey, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.
Mullen, P. and Fleming, J. (1998), 'Long-term effects of child sexual abuse', Issues in Child Abuse Prevention, No. 9, Autumn 1998, National Child Protection Clearinghouse, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne.
Mullen, P. E., Martin, J.L., Anderson, J.C., Romans, S.E. and Herbison G.P. (1994), 'The effect of child sexual abuse on social, interpersonal and sexual function in adult life', British Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 165, pp. 35 -47.
Mullinar, L. and Hunt, C. (eds) (1997), Breaking the silence: Survivors of child abuse speak out, Hodder and Stoughton, New South Wales.
Neame, A. and Heenan, M. (2003), What lies behind the hidden figure of sexual assault? Issues of prevalence and disclosure, ACSSA Briefing Paper No. 1, Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault, Australian Institute for Family Studies, Melbourne.
Richardson, N. and Bromfield, L (2005), Who abuses children? Resource Sheet No. 7, National Child Protection Clearinghouse, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne.
Rokvic, D. (2002), 'Betrayal of trust: The experiences of adult women victim/survivors of child sexual assault', Proceedings of the 8th Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, Melbourne, 12-14 February, and online at <http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/afrc8/rokvic.pdf>;
Rush, F. (1980), The best kept secret: Sexual abuse of children, McGraw-Hill, New York. Russell, D. (1986), The secret trauma: Incest in the lives of girls and women, Basic Books, New York.
Scott, D., Walker, L. and Gilmore, K. (1990), Breaking the silence: A guide to supporting victims/survivors of sexual assault, Centre Against Sexual Assault, Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne.
Stanley, J. (2003), 'Child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities', Presented at the Child Sexual Abuse: Justice Response or Alternative Resolution Conference, Adelaide, May, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, available online at <http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/2003-abuse/stanley.pdf>;
Stojadinovic, T. (2003), For the first time somebody wants to hear: The effects of childhood sexual abuse on women's experiences of pregnancy, birth and mothering: A research report for health professionals, Women's Health Statewide, Women and Children's Hospital, Adelaide, and online at <http://www.whs.sa.gov.au/pub/For_the_First_Time.pdf>;
Stott, S. (2001), Out of the shadows: Help for men who have been sexually assaulted, Russell House Publishing, Dorset, UK.
Taylor, S. C. (2004), Surviving the legal system, Coulomb Communications, Melbourne.
Tomison, A. (1995), 'Update on child sexual abuse', Issues in Child Abuse Prevention, No. 5, National Child Protection Clearinghouse, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne.
Victorian Community Council Against Violence (1991), A profile of rapes reported to the police in Victoria, 1987-1990, Victorian Community Council Against Violence, Melbourne.
Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) (2004), The health costs of violence: Measuring the burden of disease caused by intimate partner violence, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Carlton, Victoria.
Victorian Law Reform Commission (2003), Sexual Offences Interim Report, Victorian Law Reform Commission, Melbourne.
Vizard, E., Monck, E. and Misch, P. (1995), 'Child and adolescent sex abuse perpetrators: A review of the research literature,' Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 36, pp. 731-756. Wallis, Y. (1992), The Victorian community's attitudes to child sexual abuse, Community Services Victoria, Melbourne.
Women's Health Statewide (South Australia) (1994), It's not my shame: The adult survivors of child sexual abuse working party report, Women's Health Statewide, Women and Children's Hospital, Adelaide, and online at <http://www.whs.sa.gov.au/pub/Its_not_my_shame.pdf>;
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United Kingdom football sexual abuse scandal
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A sexual abuse scandal involving the abuse of young players at football clubs in the United Kingdom began in mid-November 2016. The revelations began when former professional footballers waived their rights to anonymity and talked publicly about being abused by former coaches and scouts in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. This led to a surge of further allegations, as well as allegations that some clubs had covered them up.

Echoing similar revelations in the 1990s, the initial 2016 allegations centred on abuse of young players at Crewe Alexandra and Manchester City due to the clubs' associations with Barry Bennell (previously convicted of sexual abuse offences in the UK and US) who, on 29 November 2016, was charged with new offences. Allegations were also made against George Ormond, a former youth coach and scout for Newcastle United (who also had previous convictions), former Chelsea scout Eddie Heath, and former Southampton and Peterborough coach Bob Higgins. In early December 2016, allegations about former youth coaches and scouts in Northern Ireland and Scotland also started to emerge.

Within a month of the initial reporting, the Football Association, the Scottish Football Association, several football clubs and over 20 UK police forces had established various inquiries and investigations and over 350 alleged victims had come forward. By July 2018, 300 suspects were reported to have been identified by 849 alleged victims, with 2,807 incidents involving 340 different clubs. These have led to 13 individuals being charged with historical sexual abuse, of which seven have been tried: six - Bennell, Ormond, William Toner, Michael Coleman, Jim McCafferty and Robert Smith - have been convicted and jailed; Higgins has been found guilty of one charge and faces a retrial on 48 further charges. James Torbett is on trial, while four more are awaiting trial, and one has since died. Other allegations involve individuals who had died prior to the revelations.

In July 2018, the FA's independent inquiry was said to have found no evidence of an institutional cover-up or of a paedophile ring operating within football, but its intended publication in September 2018 was delayed, potentially by up to a year, pending the retrial of Higgins and possible further charges against Bennell.
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it took 30 years for these Brave Men to come forward about their abuse.....

so that blows your argument out of the water.....

better think on that a bit more.......
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I am the mother of sons, and as a parent, I consider myself to be a custodian of civilisation. I have recently had a conversation with my eldest who is 14 about what consent is in a sexual context.

I told him that it wasn't enough for a girl to say ok, or yes, but told him he must look for "enthusiastic consent". The girl must want to do it as much as he does and should be just as keen. Anything less is unacceptable. Peer pressure and the expectations of society are forcing young girls to do things that they shouldn't even know about let alone perform or take part in.

Is it any wonder that over 40% of sexually active young women don't enjoy what they do, don't want to do it and feel pressured into sexual activity that they or their boyfriends have seen in porn films?

I also told my son that consent under the influence of drugs or alcohol wasn't consent at all at his age, and that at any time, a girl has the right to stop proceedings.

I don't have any fears for my sons as they are decent, kind, empathetic young men, and I hope we're parenting them correctly and they have a good strong moral code running through their core being.
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I am very sorry I wasn't very clear in an earlier post.   Yes I know many people never go to the authorities.   However even in the cases of people abused by clergy... when they do come forward they have some form of evidence. What I meant to say is that I don't buy Miss Fords story if she doesn't have a way to back it up.

I am sorry but for those of you talking about 3 accusers I have serious doubts if you even have any idea bout the facts of this case. The gang rape allegation is obviously a lie and if you can't see that I don[t know what to say. The other one was some where between very severe harassment and a very minor assault. In the initial allegation she wasn't even sure it was Kavanaugh.

Sexual predators don't just stop.   All three of these allegations where from him high school and college days. There is no evidence of this behavior after college.
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Originally posted by DeepThinker DeepThinker wrote:

      What I meant to say is that I don't buy Miss Fords story if she doesn't have a way to back it up.


What possible evidence could a 15 year old expect to have 40 years ago? She wouldn't have had a cell phone, or an online diary.

To me, as a non American, and therefore without a vested interest in the Supreme court of the US, and therefore more impartial, I think two things:

1. There's no smoke without fire, and

2. People often do things to benefit themselves in some way or other, particularly dishonest things, and I can't think of a single way making this allegation has benefited or will benefit Christine Blasey Ford. On the contrary, she has made herself the target for a whole heap of ugly to come her way. So why on earth would she make it up?
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Awesome - two of the best posts I've seen on AFT, and in the same thread. I love reading the stuff you both write.


Originally posted by KiwiMum KiwiMum wrote:

I think it's completely plausible that a woman has kept an assault secret and never told anyone. That's what the #metoo movement is all about. In the past many women weren't believed, and, to add insult to injury, were ridiculed in the process and made to think it was their own fault.

What makes me find this witness more than credible is that she is an educated, successful woman who has never sort the limelight in her life. Why on earth would anyone come out with false allegations and open themselves up to death threats and public humiliation.

The point that must be borne in mind about this is that, at high school, Brett Kavenaugh, along with his friend or friends, thought that harrassing and groping women was fine - a laugh even, something that they could do and get away with, and it is this contempt for women's feelings and the law that must be a fundamental part of his character, and therefore he can't hold a position in law if he doesn't, deep down, respect and uphold every part of the law.

And before you say that all men do things in high school they wouldn't do now and it was just high jinks and back then these things were ok, everyone did them. You're wrong. I know men who were like that, but also many more who weren't - who've grown up into solid, reliable, trustworthy men and who have nothing in their background that they are ashamed of or would want to keep secret.

It's not one woman who has called Kavenaugh out, it's 3. And I bet there are more who haven't come forward. I'm sure he regrets his behaviour now, I'm sure he looks at his own daughters and thought how he'd hate anyone to assault them. I'm sure he was a jerk at high school, but just because it was 40 years ago, it doesn't make it alright.



Originally posted by CRS, DrPH CRS, DrPH wrote:

The American system is unique due to its checks & balances....OK, so Kavanaugh will be affirmed to the US Supreme Court, it was pretty much baked in, even though past Justices (John Paul Stevens), law professors and others objected.

Let's see what Old Glory is made of! We have mid-term elections coming up - if the liberal Democratic party is so motivated, they will retake the House of Representatives (and perhaps even the higher Senate), in which case, they can engage in all sorts of investigations of this guy.

I believe he committed perjury on far more than these high-school charges, and a Dem controlled House could put this all on the table, forcing impeachment. If the evidence is strong enough, the Republicans in the Senate might have to go along with it, or face the wrath of the voting public.

Or not. Hang tight, the fate of the entire planet depends upon what happens in the next few months!




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KiwiMum makes several very valid points. I want to add a couple.

Most victims of abuse have huge trouble speaking up. For some it takes years for others it is never told. For all there is an element of self blame, the vast majority of which is usually unwarranted. I know several men who have been abuse victims; I don't know many women who have experienced none at all, although most have been lucky enough for it to be fairly minor (but still horribly damaging!). For every single one, male or female, talking about it has been almost impossible.

I find myself aghast at some of the comments I have heard on the subject. There is a light-hearted, jokey attitude expressed in many quarters, as if this were unimportant. To the victims it is life-changing. It casts a dark shadow over the rest of their lives which nothing can remove.

"Assault with a friendly weapon!" was spoken by one American policeman in a rape case several decades ago. If you can't see the horror of that or how it would put women off reporting abuse, I'm not sure you are fully human.

Not all abusers are male and not all victims are female. In the cases of those who are, there is the added terror of being overwhelmed. Listening to Christine Blaisey-Ford tell her story I was very moved by her description of this. Being gagged with a hand whilst being held down is a terrifying image for most women. We already know in a straight fight we will lose. That so many men can't see this is a great sadness to me. Well, me too! I am not beautiful (except to Hubby) but I have more than one abuse tale in my personal past, from more than one person, ranging in severity. The last would have been full rape, had I not been taking martial art training. I even felt guilt after that, as I hurt my attacker - a textbook no-win situation! Power and pressure are the defining point of each case. (Yes, you can ask, but don't expect any answers.) 'And yes, that makes it even harder for men to report as well. What man wants to admit to losing a battle?

It appears that the FBI investigation was given only one week to run and that they were not granted permission from the White House to interview either accuser or accusee. That also does not strike me as treating this with the gravitas it deserves. That is not an investigation. That is a whitewash! At least we now know the real reason Comey was fired. He was a loyal Republican, but he had too much integrity to be controlled!

Like our Chuck, I had no doubt that Kavanaugh would be voted in. But this just confirms my belief that the whole system is corrupt and the Guy voted in to clean it up is the biggest swamp-dweller of the lot. Of course Trump backed Kavanaugh for the post! In Trump's eyes the only woman in the whole world who matters at all is his daughter. Good God America! Even Pakistan does better at striving for justice than that!

Unlike Chuck, I don't have unlimited faith in the system. I used to. But systems have to be cared for by the people they protect and half of America seems to me to have gone mad! I hope I am proven wrong.

Civilization is not simply won, it is a spectrum we move through. America, you can't rest on your laurels. You have to fight for each inch towards a better society. You are currently going the wrong way.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 08 2018 at 1:07am
I am deeply offended! Mob justice?

I know there are false claims. But for every one of those there are many real attacks unreported, mine included.
How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CRS, DrPH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 08 2018 at 9:43am
This is very personal for me....my stepdaughter was molested by an adult man when she was a mere 11, and my mentally ill stepson was drugged and raped when he was in his late teens.

Kavanaugh had bigger problems, including possible perjury and display of bias. Justice John Paul Stevens, a SCOTUS justice nominated by a Republican President, made these comments:

WASHINGTON β€” In an unusual rebuke from a former member of the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens said on Thursday that Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh was not qualified to sit on the court.

Justice Stevens said he came to the conclusion reluctantly, changing his mind about Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination after the second round of the judge’s confirmation hearings last week. Judge Kavanaugh’s statements at those hearings, Justice Stevens said, revealed prejudices that would make it impossible for him to do the court’s work, a point he said had been made by prominent commentators.

β€œThey suggest that he has demonstrated a potential bias involving enough potential litigants before the court that he would not be able to perform his full responsibilities,” Justice Stevens said in remarks to retirees in Boca Raton, Fla. β€œAnd I think there is merit in that criticism and that the senators should really pay attention to it.”

β€œFor the good of the court,” he said, β€œit’s not healthy to get a new justice that can only do a part-time job.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/us/politics/john-paul-stevens-brett-kavanaugh.html

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jacksdad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 08 2018 at 12:20pm
I'm sorry, but I can't for the life of me understand why so many people seem to be going out of their way to discredit Kavanaugh's accusers while ignoring his easily verified misrepresentations and outright lies under oath. It says a lot about our society, and highlights the divide between the way people of different genders are treated and trusted. This has to change. It's the 21st century, people - despite the GOP's best efforts to turn back the clock.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DeepThinker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 08 2018 at 1:56pm
Hopefully this will be my last comment on this issue:

Everyone else who was alleged to be there, under oath facing the penalty of perjury, have ether claimed no knowledge of the event or have outright said it never happened. Even Fords lifelong friend who was alleged to be present has said that Ford never knew Kavanough.

This is enough for me.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 08 2018 at 2:55pm
more Men Attack women,

more men Rape and Kill Women ,

more Men openly verbally abuse Women

i believe a Woman Every time

as Jacksdads said................

this HAS to STOP

some so called Men need to have a look at what it is to be a real Man







Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.πŸ––

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 08 2018 at 3:11pm
The Philippines is one of the only countries in the world where divorce is illegal, often trapping women in toxic marriages with no way out.

Key points:
Nearly 90 per cent of the Philippines' population identify as Catholic
No progress has been made since the divorce bill passed through the Lower House in March
The only method to legally leave a marriage is through an annulment many can't afford
According to a report published this year by the Philippine Statistic Authority, one in four married women in the Philippines have been assaulted by their partner or husband.

Patti Gallardo-Marcelo is one of those women.

"I was battered physically, emotionally, sexually and financially by my former partner for 24 years, starting at the age of 16," she told the ABC.

A woman holding a microphone in front of a presentation that reads "I am a domestic violence survivor"
PHOTO: Ms Gallardo-Marcello said she suffered domestic violence for 24 years before getting her marriage annulled. (Supplied: Patti Gallardo-Marcelo)
Ms Gallardo-Marcelo, who married her former husband at a young age, she said she unwittingly became a victim.

"While most girls were celebrating their introduction to society, I was already experiencing snippets of manipulation and control that I mistook for love," she said.

While the Philippines is one of two countries left in the world where divorce is illegal β€” the other being Vatican City β€” the country is making moves towards its legalisation.

A divorce bill was passed in the country's Lower House of Congress this March, despite opposition from President Rodrigo Duterte, who also had a failed marriage.

The bill would allow the court to dissolve marriages which are considered "irremediably broken" and for individuals to remarry a person of the opposite sex.

Nearly 90 per cent of the Philippines' population identify themselves as Catholic β€” and the bill has now become a struggle between the majority conservative ideals and the progressive wings of parliament.

'President Duterte is against divorce'
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte
PHOTO: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte opposed the divorce bill even though he had his marriage annulled.
(AP: Wong Maye-e)
Nearly seven months on, the bill has remained stagnant. But even if it passes in favour in the senate, Mr Duterte could still use his veto powers to cancel it.

"The President is against divorce," Mr Duterte's spokesperson said in a press conference after the move in March this year.

Women told to endure domestic violence in the name of God

Advocates say the Christian church in Australia is not just failing to sufficiently address domestic violence, but is enabling and concealing it.
Family and domestic violence support services:
1800 Respect national helpline: 1800 737 732
Women's Crisis Line: 1800 811 811
Men's Referral Service: 1300 766 491
Lifeline (24-hour crisis line): 131 114
Relationships Australia: 1300 364 277
Former house speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, one of the principal authors of the divorce bill, said the bill had made little progress due to strong lobbies against divorce by supporters of the Catholic Church.

"[The Catholic Church] should respect our position as a Government official because we have an obligation to the entire nation, irrespective of whatever religion they belong [to]," Mr Alvarez said.

"The majority and minority [in the Lower House] worked together, there was no opposition.

"They supported the bill. I don't understand why the Senate of the Philippines are so afraid to deliver it and pass the bill."

Spousal violence is the most common form of violence experienced by women aged between 15 and 49, the Philippine Statistic Authority figures show.

The findings were based on a preliminary result from the 2017 national demographic and health survey, which found 26 per cent of women in that age group have experienced physical, sexual, or emotional violence by their husband or partner.

"[By not recognising a right for] divorce, it is really hell for those who would like to move forward into new relationships," Ms Gallardo-Marcelo said.

Annulment is a luxury few can afford
A colourful church altar with a large cross and painted glass windows.
PHOTO: Nearly 90 per cent of the Philippines' population identify as Catholic. (Flickr: Jun's World)
For politicians like Mr Alvarez and Mr Duterte, leaving their marriages is more feasible than for most of the country's poorer and vulnerable residents.

The process is a luxury few can afford β€” taking up to 10 years in the overburdened court system and costing thousands of dollars.

The only method to legally end a marriage is through a civil procedure called an annulment, where the marriage is declared null and void from the beginning on the grounds of "psychological incapacity".

"For instance, when entering a marriage, one party is not prepared to enter married life, say they failed to perform their obligation as a husband or a wife … that can be considered as a psychological incapacitated spouse," Mr Alvarez said, adding that there were many ways to interpret the phrase.

A man laughing wearing an orange shirt in front of the seal for house of representative in the Philippines
PHOTO: Former house speaker Pantaleon Alvarez helped pass the divorce bill in the Lower House of Congress. (Photo: Supplied)
Ms Gallardo-Marcelo said she escaped her marriage in 2002, but it took five years and 150,000 Philippine pesos ($3,888) β€” about 56 per cent of an average Filipino family's annual income β€” to file a criminal case against her ex-husband and nullify the marriage.

"Both cases left me drained emotionally and financially," Gallardo-Marcelo said, adding that she is no longer a victim.

In a country that criminalises adultery and concubinage, married women who have another relationship can be jailed up to six years while married men who are proven to be living with another woman can be jailed for up to four years.

Law 'biased' against domestic violence survivors
While the Philippines Government signed the Anti-violence against women and their children Act in 2004 β€” aimed at protecting women and children on a range of violence β€” many feel that it's not enough.

"It assumes that there is violence but that is not always the case, and there are still social effects on the children and couples," Mr Alvarez said.

A woman holding a microphone in front of a sign which reads: Join the campaign to end violence against women
PHOTO: Ms Gallardo-Marcelo said it's "heartbreaking" that many women are not able to afford an annulment and cannot move on with their lives after enduring domestic abuse. (Supplied: Patti Gallardo-Marcelo)
Ms Gallardo-Marcello said the archaic court system was one of the reasons why many women don't file abuse cases.

"Very few cases are successful [because] many women are intimidated by the process and uninformed about how the law can assist them," she said.

"I have moved forward and a lot of the women we have helped have moved forward as well.

"There are a lot of us who have stories to tell … some find it difficult to "make kwento", that is why I do what I do," she said.

"Make kwento" translates to "tell their story like it is".

Ms Gallardo-Marcello has since started a local NGO called SAVE Our Women, short for Stop the Abuse and Violence, in 2007.
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.πŸ––

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DeepThinker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 09 2018 at 12:32am

"i believe a Woman Every time"

Okay we need to do a quick check for intellectual honesty and consistency.   What do you think of Bill Clinton? Do you consider him a rapist? If not, why not?


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote arirish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 09 2018 at 11:01pm
DeepThinker said:   "What do you think of Bill Clinton? Do you consider him a rapist? If not, why not?"

As in so many cases of powerful men, Juanita Broaddrick's charges were truly never investigated! In my opinion if the charges were proven true he should be sharing a cell with Bill Cosby!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 10 2018 at 4:57am
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.πŸ––

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2018 at 2:30am
I was talking to a female police officer recently and I asked her what were the main sorts of crimes she was being called out to in our area, and she said that generally, in all regions, there had been a big increase in domestic violence. I said I was surprised by this as it's quite an affluent area, and she said it's a rise that's directly linked to men losing power to women.

She said that the more rights and more equality women got, the more domestic violence there was because as men felt the ground slipping out from under them, they showed their masculinity and superiority off by beating the women in their lives. And she said that it was always worse if NZ lost a rugby match.

I'm extremely lucky that no man has ever hit me, as I'm only small, but if they ever did I'd break their arm - which is something I could easily do. Not every woman is as lucky.
Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CRS, DrPH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2018 at 2:25pm
Originally posted by KiwiMum KiwiMum wrote:


I'm extremely lucky that no man has ever hit me, as I'm only small, but if they ever did I'd break their arm - which is something I could easily do. Not every woman is as lucky.


Damn!!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 13 2018 at 9:00am

Because I obviously Loathe Trump, I am probably perceived as anti-Republican. I am not. My loathing is Trump specific.

So, to quote Deep Thinker:
Originally posted by DeepThinker DeepThinker wrote:


Okay we need to do a quick check for intellectual honesty and consistency.   What do you think of Bill Clinton? Do you consider him a rapist? If not, why not?

I reply: "Yes, probably!" Nothing is proven, true, but there can't be any proof if the most powerful man in the land wants to whitewash over it.

And so on to Kavanaugh? Yes VERY probably! the same power-whitewash applies here. The only difference this time, is that the guy with the bucket of whitewash is a mysogenist who bullies his way through life. In my experience, this power without understanding/care is the universal recipe for making an abuser. Kavanaugh seems similar, if nowhere near as bad.

Finding out who did what in these situations is delicate, it requires detailed, painstaking, time-consuming research. The FBI have a wonderful record in such things. But some jobs need more than 5 days, even for God! - And no-one threatens to sack him if the results are unwanted.
How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving.
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