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Survivor calls on community to help prevent child abuse
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(Arianne Starnes/For The Examiner)
Howard County Police Maj. Merritt Bender helps Howard County Police Deputy Chief Gary Gardner light his candle during a candlelight vigil for child abuse and sexual assault victims at the department in Ellicott City. While Howard agencies have made gains in helping child abuse victims, preventing the abuse is the responsibility of the broader community, an abuse survivor said Tuesday. “People knew about my abuse and didn’t tell anyone about it,” said Diane Champe, a Specialized Trauma Treatment and Recovery Center board member, who was abused as a child by her Navy admiral father and brother. A group of about 30 police officials, activists and representatives from the state’s attorneys office, Department of Social Services and STTAR listened Tuesday evening as Champe spoke out “as a witness to horror.” The Howard police department and STTAR played host to the event — timed to coincide with Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month — at police headquarters in Ellicott City. Survivors are met with suspicion when they speak out and face discrimination in the work place when they relapse, while news media fasten to the “eroticized violence” of the act rather than the need for sustained treatment and the long-term psychological impact on the victims, Champe said. STTAR officials said the annual ceremony also served to raise awareness about their organization, which has provided victims support services for more than 30 years under four different names. “People shy away from our organization until they need us,” said Jeannie Dillingham, the STTAR center’s executive director. “It’s like they say, ‘If I don’t pay attention to you, it won’t happen to me.’” In its most recent iteration, STTAR treats adult and child victims of violent crimes and assaults. The center works in concert with the Child Advocacy Center, which is administered by the police department and is girded by members from the state’s attorney’s office and the Department of Social Services. AT A GLANCE » Howard had 42 rapes in 2006, one more than the five-year average. » 872,000 children were victims of child abuse or neglect last year nationally. » 61 percent of female rape victims are under 18 nationally. » Between one-third and two-thirds of known sexual assault victims are 15 or younger. » The United States has the highest rate of rape among countries that publish such statistics. Sources: Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Howard Police Department jpalazzolo@baltimoreexaminer.com |
