Advocates are hoping to increase the number of local residents who have undergone training to prevent and recognize the signs of child sexual abuse — a crime with potentially lifelong consequences that impacted at least one child in Bartholomew County and the surrounding area every five days last year.
The training, provided for free by two officials at local nonprofit Family Service Inc., focuses on discussing steps that adults can take to protect children from child sexual abuse, said Lisa Teague, a prevention education specialist at Family Service Inc. who has been a training facilitator for several years.
The most recent training was held this past week, but only two people attended.
“A lot of times we’ll get community members, like people that belong to nonprofits or businesses, which that’s important because they’re also parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles,” said Teague, who led the training this past week. “…But I would really like to see parents and grandparents that just come as community members to participate.”
“You’ll see things on different social media sites and people say, ‘We need to do this about child sex abuse,’” she added. “I would like those people come to the training so they can learn more about it.”
Troubling numbers
The prevalence of child sexual abuse difficult to determine, as advocates say the number of incidents far exceeds the number of cases reported to authorities.
However, the Indiana Department of Child Services has reported 275 substantiated cases of child sexual abuse in Bartholomew County since 2013, ranging from a low of 18 cases in 2017 to as many as 39 cases in 2021.
State officials classify cases as “substantiated” when they find a “preponderance of evidence” that would lead a reasonable person to believe that abuse has occurred, or when a perpetrator admits to having abused the child.
Earlier this month, The Republic published information from Family Service Inc. officials who were hoping to increase interest in the training session this past week. However, the letter misstated the number of substantiated cases in Bartholomew County last year.
There were 20 substantiated cases of child sexual abuse in the county in 2022, not eight, according to the Indiana Department of Child Services. There were eight substantiated cases just in December alone — or two cases, on average, every week that month.
Bartholomew County is part of DCS Region 14, which also includes Jackson, Jennings, Johnson and Shelby counties. There were 70 substantiated cases in the region last year — roughly one case every five days.
There were 2,394 substantiated cases in Indiana last year, or about one case, on average, every 3 hours and 40 minutes. Research by the Crimes Against Children Research Center suggests that 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys nationwide is a victim of child sexual abuse.
As of the end of June, there had been nine substantiated cases in Bartholomew County and 49 in the region, putting the five-county region on pace for a 40% increase in substantiated cases this year compared to last year.
“Those (cases) are substantiated,” Teague said. “That means that something was found, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t more. We know that there’s more out there.”
Monthly trainings
Advocates at Family Service Inc., for their part, say they plan to continue holding monthly trainings for community members.
The trainings, which are free and open to the public, use curriculum from Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children program and include a video and a discussion on how to prevent sexual abuse and how to react if someone suspects a child is being sexually abused, Teague said.
Darkness to Light is a national not-for-profit based in South Carolina that seeks to prevent child sexual abuse through a combination of research, education and community advocacy.
A total of 877 people have attended the trainings in Bartholomew County over the past five years, Teague said. The next training is scheduled for Aug. 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Family Service, 1531 13th St., Suite 2540.
“(The training) is important to the community to protect children so they do not experience child sexual abuse and/or any other kind of abuses,” Teague said. “…It’s been shown that with that happening that they can experience lifelong consequences to their physical, mental health, not to mention the people and their family, their friends, and then that affects the community as a whole.”
