The Damage Caused by Sexual Assault and other Sexual Offenses [View all]

[MineralMan]

is often minimized by people. That's especially true for men. Most of us haven't experienced it and don't fully understand its impact on victims.

The daughter of one of my wife's cousins got flashed by some willy-waver when she was 14. She was just walking home from school and some asshole pulled up in his car and jumped out with his inflamed junk showing. The girl ran off and the man drove off. The entire incident lasted just seconds.

But, that wasn't the end of it. The girl was materially harmed by the experience and had anxiety attacks and other problems that required therapy for a couple of years. She's OK now, pretty much, half a dozen years later, but still has trouble with forming trusting, close relationships with guys. That incident affected her life in a negative way.

She wasn't physically hurt, and there was no physical assault, but that brief incident caused significant harm. How much worse is the harm caused by people like Judge Roy Moore, who took his sexual quirks farther and physically abused a girl of the same age? What was the impact of that on his victim? Has she recovered fully from that?

There is no minimizing such criminal acts. They cause real, palpable harm. Nobody should ever dismiss such a thing. Nobody should brush it off. It's important. Chances are that someone each of us knows has been the victim of some sexual abuse. We may not know about it, but it's certain that the person who was the victim is still dealing with it.

We should never minimize or brush off such things. When we do, we become participants in the damage that was caused.