Category: Sexual Abuse Cases

There comes a moment in every parent’s life when they entrust their child to someone else’s care. That starts with a babysitter when they are young. Then the child goes off to kindergarten and progresses through the grades. As they grow older, children become increasingly involved in sports and clubs. Parents can’t be with their […]

Child sexual abuse is one of those topics most of us hope never to confront. However, the reality is that it affects far too many children, including those in West Virginia. These are real kids: our neighbors’ children, classmates, or someone we know. While understanding how common child sexual abuse is can be uncomfortable, it […]

When you become a parent, you never imagine having to face the unthinkable, such as learning that your child has been sexually abused. It is a heartbreaking reality that some children endure. These effects can ripple through their lives in ways that are hard to see at first. As a parent or caregiver, the thought […]

As a parent, nothing is more important than your child’s safety and well-being. We protect them from the first scraped knee to the hard conversations about growing up. But one topic is almost too painful to imagine: the possibility that someone could hurt them in a traumatic way. Unfortunately, childhood sexual abuse happens more than […]

The term “sexual predator” carries weight. It evokes fear, concern, and the need for protection, especially when it appears in legal discussions, media reports, or community alerts. But understanding what legally and socially defines a sexual predator requires more than a gut reaction. The label isn’t applied casually. It has specific legal implications and societal […]

How pervasive is sexual assault? According to information collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over half of all women and close to one in three men have experienced some form of sexual assault involving physical contact during their lifetimes. In the eyes of the law, there were many levels of sexual assault […]

Hearing that someone close to you has been the victim of sexual abuse can bring up a range of emotions from anger to guilt. The important thing to remember is that if someone you care about has experienced sexual abuse, they need your support more than ever. The way that you respond can make a […]

Survivors of a sexual assault often experience overwhelming feelings of shame, embarrassment, guilt, anger, and depression. This emotional anguish far outlasts any physical wounds. One way that a sexual assault victim can begin to heal is to hold their assailant accountable. That means pursuing two possible paths for a remedy: criminal and civil. With either […]

The primary goal of a parent is to keep their child safe. Unfortunately, a parent can’t always watch over a child every minute of every day. Between the hours a child spends online or at school participating in extracurricular activities, there are a lot of times when their parents are not directly watching over the […]

A sexual assault is a violent crime with repercussions that can last a lifetime. The West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information (FRIS) presents tragic statistics that girls aged 16 to 19 are four times more likely to be victims of rape and “that 1 in 6 adult women will be the victim of an attempted […]