quote] Progressive Understanding
"People didn't have the body of knowledge 18 or 20 years ago to say that this is something that will harm your child emotionally, if you don't address it. Parents didn't know the seriousness ... and the long-term effects."From WT Video Release
http://www.jw-media.org/releases/default.htm?content=/vnr/default.htm
Here are several excerpts from articles written 17 to 20 years ago. The articles are quite lengthy. But is fairly evident that the WTS knew what the experts in this field recommended.
An excerpt from twenty (20) years ago:
June 22, 1982 Awake page 10, “Rape at Home”
Incest is probably the most selfish and reprehensible kind of child abuse. It is a grotesque violation of the child’s trust and dependency. It is the child’s closest protector that is turning on it. And the child is a damaged victim. “I have never knowingly talked to a happy, well-adjusted, unconcerned incest victim,” said Dr. Suzanne Sgroi, former chairman of the Sexual Trauma Treatment Program.An excerpt from nineteen (19) years ago:Dr. Judianne Densen-Gerber, director of Odyssey Institute in New York city, says: “In my own practice I have the hardest time imaginable treating these children who suffer from incest, even more than the kids who are battered, abused, set on fire, and whipped because at least those children don’t confuse what’s being done to them with love. The parent who sexually uses a child while telling him, ‘I love you,’ is raising a child who will be afraid to establish rapport, trust, and engagement with anyone else in his life, even with the therapist, because unlike the beaten child, he doesn’t seek affection, he fears affection and becomes extremely isolated.”
October 1, 1983 Watchtower page 27, “Help for the Victims of Incest “
Incestuous child abuse is sexual abuse of children by an older relative. Usually, it is by a male relative—such as a father, stepfather, uncle or older brother. Sometimes, but much more rarely, it is by a female relative. According to the book The Silent Children, incestuous abuse can range from improper fondling to oral-genital contact to intercourse. Of course, affectionate physical contact between children and older people is proper. But when the older person finds these contacts arousing, or when he does things alone with the child that he would not do if the child’s mother were present, this will likely lead to sexual abuse of the child.An excerpt from seventeen (17) years ago“FOR most of her life Rachel has been ridden with guilt, convinced of her own worthlessness, and trapped in a sense of hopeless isolation.” What could so blemish the life of a British housewife and mother?
A 16-year-old girl from California said: “I now have a pain deep in my heart that will never go away, and it hurts, truly hurts.”
January 22, 1985 Awake pages 3-4, “Child Molesting-Every Mother's Nightmare--A Widespread Problem”
The fact is, sexual molestation of children has been going on for a long time and today it is widespread. In 1983, the head of New York City’s Advisory Task Force on Rape reported ‘a dramatic increase in the number of young children who are victims of rape, incest, and other forms of sexual abuse.’ Dr. David Finkelhor of the Family Violence Research Program at the University of New Hampshire conducted a large-scale study of the subject. He found that the children of 9 percent of the parents interviewed had been sexually abused. Fifteen percent of the women and 6 percent of the men had themselves been sexually abused as children!Exact statistics are difficult to come by. In the United States, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect has records of 55,399 cases of children being sexually molested in one year. But these are only cases of incestuous abuse. Abuse by friends, neighbors, teachers, and so forth—as well as by strangers—would increase that figure to a considerable extent. And a spokesman for the Child Welfare League of America told Awake! that “the figures we have are only the tip of the iceberg.”
A report in the magazine Ladies Home Journal estimates: “Sexual abuse of young girls is four times more common than rape of adult women. Between the ages of five and 13, one in four little girls falls prey to some form of sexual abuse by adults—whether it be exhibitionism, inappropriate fondling, rape, or incest. Although young females are the most common victims, 20 to 25 percent of those attacked are little boys.”
Doctors are convinced of the harmful and long-term effects of such abuse. Hence, parents wonder: ‘Are my children at risk? What steps can I take to protect them? What sort of person would try to harm them?’[/quote]