SEXUAL HARASSMENT - ABUSE - ASSAULT - VIOLENCE

SEXUAL HARASSMENT - Sexual harassment is unwanted, deliberate or repeated sexual behavior: comments, gestures or touching. The person hearing, seeing or being touched does not want this attention and is frequently uncomfortable and embarrassed. Sexually suggestive objects, signs, magazines or pictures may be sexual harassment, too.

Sexual harassment can also be unlawful sex discrimination if there is a subtle or direct threat that a sexual or social relationship is part of your job or your educational performance. The threat can be about any part of your job: wages, promotions, references, working conditions; or your educational performance: grades, honors, course work, scholarships.

SEXUAL ABUSE - Indicators from the child's behavior: visible emotional distress; fear of specific persons; regression into outgrown behavior, such as bed-wetting or thumb sucking; complaints of abdominal pain or sore throat; fear of going to bed or of sleeping alone; poor concentration and short attention span, especially at school; withdrawal from others; foreign objects collected from the child's clothing or body; running away; alcohol and substance abuse.

Your child may be very upset. Your child may have disturbed sleeping patterns such as nightmares, fear of going to bed, fear of sleeping alone or bed- wetting, loss of appetite, irritable nature and lose patience easily, more temper tantrums, the wish to withdraw from usual activities, difficulty at school such as poor concentration, short attention span and loss of interest in classroom activities.

When you take the child to a doctor, hospital or clinic, you may be given other information which might serve to corroborate sexual abuse: a description of injuries to the child, results of laboratory tests and examinations for spermatozoa or seminal fluid, results of tests for sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy, post-traumatic stress disorder.

What is child sexual abuse? Since childhood sexual curiosity is normal, it is important to understand what is meant by child sexual abuse. The victim can be found in all social and economic levels and in all ethnic groups.

In the broadest sense of the term, child sexual abuse may refer to any situation of forcible sexual activity involving a child sixteen years old or younger: sexual contact between a child and another person in which threats, bribery or similar methods are used to get the child to participate; any sexual contact between a child and an adult; sex crimes against children such as rape, fondling, incest, molestation, exhibitionism, sodomy, childhood pornography and child prostitution.

Sexual abuse is seductive behavior; indecent exposure; sexual touching, fondling or game playing; oral, anal or vaginal intercourse. Boys as well as girls may have been sexually abused. Incidents may have occurred just once or many times.

Sexually transmitted diseases: gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes genitalis, chlamydia trachomatis, venereal warts, trichomonas, gardnerella and human immune deficiency virus.

SEXUAL ASSAULT - Sexual assault (and sexual abuse) are terms that refer to sexual contact without your consent. Rape, incest, attempted rape and unwanted sexual touch are often called sexual assault.

What are the facts about sexual assault? There is no typical victim: anyone can be a victim of sexual assault. A woman is raped every six minutes. In a single year, over 90,000 women in the United States report a rape to law enforcement officials. Only one out of every ten rapes is reported. Sexual assault is not sex. Sexual assault is a violent abuse of power. Sexual assault victims need your support.

What are the facts about child sexual assault? One in three females will be sexually assaulted by age eighteen. One in six males will be sexually assaulted by age eighteen. A large majority of child sexual assault cases are not reported. Ninety percent of sexually assaulted children are assaulted by someone they know. Child sexual assault is not sex. Child sexual assault is a violent abuse of power. Child sexual assault victims need your support. In the United States, a child is sexually victimized in some way, every two minutes. It is estimated that only one out of every ten cases is reported; so that each year, there may be between 200,000 to 500,000 child victims of sexual abuse.

Facts: Statistics indicate that more than one-third of all rapes take place in the victim's home and over half of the attackers are known to the women who become their victims. Researchers estimate the actual number of rapes to be approximately four times the reported number, or one quarter of a million rapes per year. Sixty to seventy-five percent of all rapes are planned in advance. Eighty-five percent of all rapes are accompanied by violence or the threat of violence.

There is no single reaction to the experience of sexual assault, but there are common patterns of response. The return to trust may be a long and arduous process. The reactions of family and friends to the rape victim have a strong effect on her recovery from crisis. Doctors, police and attorneys in many states have joined together to support the victim as she moves through the system of justice. Community rape crisis centers provide support to the victim.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE - Domestic violence is the intimidation and physical abuse of one family or household member by another. This abuse may range from harassment to battery to murder.

Violence - Acceptable behavior toward women? Every eighteen seconds a woman is beaten or abused by someone she loves. Both domestic violence and sexual assault have a long history as acceptable behavior toward women. Both are violent crimes and women share with the victims of other types of violent crimes the feelings of helplessness and loss of control which are typical responses.

Women may be assaulted or abused, not as individual persons, but for what they represent. Violence toward women is most appropriately viewed as the historical and current expression of male dominance.

Both of these crimes against women may be seen as a show of masculinity motivated by power and anger with the purpose of controlling or dominating the victim. There is no "typical victim" of sexual assault or domestic violence, there are only women who unwittingly become caught in a brutal power game over which they feel little or no control.

Domestic Violence: The denial surrounding domestic violence is astonishing given its long history and acceptance by society. Researchers estimate that one and a half to three million women are beaten each year. This means that domestic violence occurs in one out of every four homes. And forty percent of all the women who are murdered annually are killed by their husbands or boyfriends. Physical abuse is happening all the time to all kinds of women. It cuts across economic, social and ethnic lines. And the man who beats his partner could be any man. He beats her not because she provokes him or because she deserves it, but because he can get away with it. The notion of women as property, the idea that a man may chastise his wife to keep her "in line" is inherent in this socially accepted violence. The abused woman is the victim of a violent crime, but she may have no other place to go.

The battered woman lives in fear. If she tries to defend herself, the violence may escalate. If she leaves, she may be pursued and beaten even more brutally as punishment for her flight. The abused woman is trapped in her violent home. They are truly not responsible for their partners' violence.

A battered woman soon learns that any action on her part can be the excuse for a violent episode. The battered woman may have seen violence in her family. Afraid to leave and afraid to stay, tied economically and emotionally to the abuser, the battered woman may slip into despair.

LIST OF DEMONS TO BE CAST OUT IN THE NAME OF JESUS

The following are characteristics of sexual harassment - abuse - assault - violence: sexual harassment, embarrassment, sexual abuse, emotional distress, fear of specific persons, regression, bed-wetting, thumb sucking, pain, short attention span, withdrawal, escape, substance abuse, nightmares, fear of going to bed, fear of sleeping alone, irritability, temper tantrums, loss of interest, injuries, sexually transmitted diseases, post-traumatic stress disorder, forcible sexual activity, sexual contact, rape, fondling, incest, molestation, exhibitionism, sodomy, pornography, prostitution, seductive behavior, indecent exposure, sexual touching, game playing, oral sex, anal sex, gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes genitalis, chalamydia trachomatis, venereal warts, trichomonas, gardnerella, human immune deficiency virus, tay sacks, spinal bifida, downs syndrome, mental retardation, emotional diseases, sexual assault, attempted rape, distrust, sexual violence, intimidation, battery, murder, victim, helplessness, loss of control, domination, anger, control, domestic violence, physical abuse, slavery, trapped, despair.

Note - The list found in Sexual Diseases, Impurities and Demons is the main one for deliverance from sexual sins. Other related lists may be found in Effeminacy - Sins of Sodom, Rape, and Deliverance for the Subconscious Mind.

REFERENCES - The background for this lesson was taken from publications provided by the following organizations: Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, Illinois Department of Human Rights, Children's Hospital National Medical Center, and Rape Information and Counseling Service. Also About Adults Abused As Children by Channing L. Bete Co., Inc. is very helpful.