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Wednesday, April 27
10am • 3pm • EMU Ballroom
IN BRIEF
Presentation addresses
effects of militarization
An expert on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict’s gender dynamics will dis
cuss the effects of militarization on
society and how to transform the
world’s militarized cultures. Simona
Sharoni will deliver a speech, “Com
passionate Resistance: Confronting
Militarization in the Age of Empire,”
in the EMU Fir Room at 7 p.m.
Sharoni, a visiting professor in the
University’s Women’s and Gender
r
Studies Program, taught a course on
race, gender and militarization dur
ing winter term, according to a press
release. Her main research areas in
clude the relationship between vio
lence against women and the vio
lence of war.
The event is co-sponsored by the
Women’s and Gender Studies Pro
gram and the Center for the Study of
Women in Society, and is free and
open to the public.
— Ayisha Yahya
_____
Tim Bobosky | Photographer
Psychology professor Jennifer Freyd talks about damage caused by child sexual abuse.
Freyd: Child sexual abuse is
immediate and future risk
Continued from page 1A
Pediatrics and Child Psychiatry at
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical
Center, said his center evaluates about
2,000 children per year for allegations
of abuse. The center is faced with the
problem of establishing clear-cut find
ings of abuse in children who are too
young to speak for themselves, yet
have injuries inconsistent with their
caretakers’ stories.
“We talk about the ‘killer couch’ as
we see so many children with terrible
head injuries and multiple broken
bones who ‘fell off the couch,’” Put
nam said in an e-mail. “Often we can
say that it didn’t happen that way, but
we can’t say what actually did happen.
Or we see children as young as three
with sexually transmitted diseases, but
can’t say who gave it (to) them.”
Freyd said many child sexual abuse
victims don’t report abuse for fear of
not being believed or getting punished.
“A great deal of abuse from an adult
to a child ... happens in the context of
a relationship,” Freyd said, adding that
abuse perpetrators often “groom” and
manipulate their victims emotionally.
Freyd researches the phenomenon
of betrayal trauma, which can include
child sexual abuse and involves the
mistreatment and abuse of a child by
someone the child knows. She also
researches memory and awareness.
Article co-author Ross Cheit, associ
ate professor of political science and
public policy at Brown University,
commented on the courts’ treatment
of sexual abuse.
“Our social response is actually far
more lenient than is generally recog
nized; child molesters receive surpris
ingly lenient punishments as a group,”
Cheit wrote in an e-mail.
The article recommended three
ways to combat child sexual abuse: in
terdisciplinary research initiatives, the
expansion of the National Child TYau
matic Stress Network and the creation
of a new Institute of Child Abuse and
Interpersonal Violence within the
National Institutes of Health.
Freyd said working with authors
from various backgrounds helped keep
the article free of excessive jargon and
easily readable.
“When you work with people
outside your normal group, it changes
your assumptions about what every
one knows,” Freyd said.
Freyd expressed hopes that the pub
lication of the article in Science would
draw attention to the study of child
sexual abuse.
“It gives this topic a voice and credi
bility that has been lacking,” she said.
She added that lawmakers often read
Policy Forum, the section of Science
that hosted the article.
“If we want this new institute to
happen, we want congressional aides
to read about it,” Freyd said.
The proposed developments would
work to prevent future child sexual
abuse through treatment of children
who have been sexually abused. Freyd
said children who are sexually abused
have an increased likelihood of grow
ing up to commit sexual abuse them
selves, although she said this does not
always happen.
“Lots and lots of abuse victims do
not grow up to become perpetrators,”
Freyd said. “Lots and lots heal and
grow up to do very good things. ”
Nevertheless, Freyd described child
sexual abuse as a future risk factor. She
said the immediate consequences of
child sexual abuse can range from lack
of sleep because the victim is being
abused at night, to being incorrectly di
agnosed with Attention Deficit Disor
der because of an overlap between
ADD symptoms and child sexual
abuse symptoms. Long-term conse
quences can include serious mental
and physical health problems, sub
stance abuse, victimization and
criminality in adulthood, according to
the article.
“If you wanted to make it more like
ly someone was going to have a bad
life, that’s one of the things you would
do to them, abuse them,” Freyd said.
Freyd emphasized the responsibility
of parents to share healthy physical af
fection with their children and talk
with their children about appropriate
relationship boundaries and types of
physical expression.
“When you teach kids about good
touch ... and talk to them about it,
they learn,” Freyd said.
evasylwester@ dailyemerald. com