Dear Leadership of the Boy Scouts of America, Administrators at Penn State, Leaders of the Catholic Church and BBC Executives:
“If there is knowledge that you could have had, should have had but chose not to have, you are still responsible.”
Please read that again, Mr. Spanier, Mr. Curley, Mr. Schultz (Penn State), and all of the Catholic Church/Boy Scouts of America Leadership who moved pedophile after pedophile from church to church or troop to troop - READ THAT AGAIN - YOU ARE STILL RESPONSIBLE:
Cases of willful blindness aren’t about hindsight (Mr. Paterno)....Chief among culprits is power
Dear Mr. Entwistle, Mr. Rippon, Mr. Thompson (?) and
everyone else at the BBC who
knew...
Then and now, willful blindness was a concept that should send shivers down the spines of any executive. The legal concept of willful blindness originated in the nineteenth century. The judge in Regina v Sleep ruled that an accused could not be convicted for possession of government property unless the jury found that he either knew the goods came from government stores or had “willfully shut his eyes to the fact.”
Nowadays, the law is most commonly applied in money laundering and drug trafficking cases – but the behaviour it describes is all around us: in banks, the Catholic Church, at BP, in Abu Ghraib, in most industrial accidents.
These narratives always follow the same trajectory: years of abuse involving a large number of participants, plenty of warning signs and, when the problem finally explodes, howls of pain: How could we have been so blind?
Cases of willful blindness aren’t about hindsight. They feature contemporaneous information that was available but ignored. While it’s tempting to pillory individual villains, the causes are more often systemic and cultural. There are many reasons –psychological, social and structural — why we don’t see what we most need to notice. None of them provides an alibi or an excuse. What each does is shed light on how these organizational car crashes happen – and how they might be prevented.
Reference: Heffernan, M. (2012). WILLFUL BLINDNESS: WHEN A LEADER TURNS A BLIND EYE. Ivey Business Journal, 76(3), 1.
Let us not be blind anymore. From our website:
What is Child Sexual Abuse (CSA)?
If you are not exactly sure what sexual abuse is, you’re not alone. All sexual activity between an adult and a child is sexual abuse. Sexual touching between children can also be sexual abuse.
Sexual abuse between children is often defined as when there is a significant age difference (usually 3 or more years) between the children, or if the children are very different developmentally or size-wise. Sexual abuse does not have to involve penetration, force, pain, or even touching. If an adult engages in any sexual behavior (looking, showing, or touching) with a child to meet the adult’s interest or sexual needs, it is sexual abuse.
Child Sexual Abuse includes harmful contact and non-contact behaviors
Abusive physical contact or touching includes:
Touching a child’s genitals or private parts for sexual purposes
Making a child touch someone else’s genitals or play sexual games
Putting objects or body parts (like fingers, tongue or penis) inside the vagina, in the mouth or in the anus of a child for sexual purposes
Abusive non-contact behaviors include:
Showing pornographyi to a child
Deliberately exposing an adult’s genitals to a child
Photographing a child in sexual poses
Encouraging a child to watch or hear sexual acts
Inappropriately watching a child undress or use the bathroom
Sexually Abusive Images of Children on the Internet
As well as the activities described above, there is also the serious and growing problem of people making and downloading sexual images of children on the Internet. To view sexually abusive images of children is to participate in the abuse of a child, and may cause someone to consider sexual interactions with children as acceptable.
What to Do
If you know or suspect that a child is being abused, you should always take it seriously. A good rule of thumb is to assume a “false positive”- in other words, assume that abuse is occurring if you have suspicions, and respond accordingly.
What to Say
If a child even hints in a vague way that sexual abuse has occurred, encourage him or her to talk freely. Don’t make judgmental comments.
Show that you understand and take seriously what the child is saying. Child and adolescent psychiatrists have found that children who are listened to and understood do much better than those who are not. The response to the disclosure of sexual abuse is critical to the child’s ability to resolve and heal the trauma of sexual abuse.
Assure the child that they did the right thing in telling. A child who is close to the abuser may feel guilty about revealing the secret. The child may feel frightened if the abuser has threatened to harm the child or other family members as punishment for telling the secret.
Tell the child that he or she is not to blame for the sexual abuse. Most children in attempting to make sense out of the abuse will believe that somehow they caused it or may even view it as a form of punishment for imagined or real wrongdoings.
Finally, offer the child protection, and promise that you will promptly take steps to see that the abuse stops.
What to Do
Report any suspicion of child abuse. to the police or district attorney’s office. Individuals reporting in good faith are immune from prosecution. The agency receiving the report will conduct an evaluation and will take action to protect the child.
Parents should consult with their pediatrician or family physician, who may refer them to a physician who specializes in evaluating and treating sexual abuse. The examining doctor will evaluate the child’s condition and treat any physical problem related to the abuse, gather evidence to help protect the child, and reassure the child that he or she is all right.
Children who have been sexually abused should have an evaluation by a child and adolescent psychiatrist or other qualified mental health professional to find out how the sexual abuse has affected them, and to determine whether ongoing professional help is necessary for the child to deal with the trauma of the abuse. The child and adolescent psychiatrist can also provide support to other family members who may be upset by the abuse.
While most allegations of sexual abuse made by children are true, some false accusations may arise in custody disputes and in other situations. Occasionally, the court will ask a child and adolescent psychiatrist to help determine whether the child is telling the truth, or whether it will hurt the child to speak in court about the abuse.
When a child is asked to testify, special considerations–such as videotaping, frequent breaks, exclusion of spectators, and the option not to look at the accused–make the experience much less stressful.
Adults, because of their maturity and knowledge, are always the ones to blame when they abuse children. The abused children should never be blamed.
When a child tells someone about sexual abuse, a supportive, caring response is the first step in getting help for the child and reestablishing their trust in adults.