Foster Care Abuse

1 in  5 Foster children were sexually abused by their Foster parent or another adult or child in the home. 

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Sexual abuse by a Foster Parent or clergy member occurs at devastatingly high rates. Religious institutions across every denomination have provided sexual predators with a unique opportunity to access and groom victims in an environment intended to be trustworthy and safe.  Church abuse occurs in almost EVERY SINGLE RELIGION.  This breach of trust is one reason why clergy sexual abuse is particularly harmful to child victims.

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For decades institutions such as the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, the SDA Church (Seventh Day Adventists)and so many other religions worked to bury the number of increasing allegations against their leaders through deliberate negligence, confusion and ignorance.  Naivete did not contribute to so many children being hurt.  A failure to VALIDATE a child's allegations, an UNWILLINGESS to protect against abuse and a FAILURE TO ACT are to blame.  

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When you deliberately look in the other direction while a child is being harmed you have contributed to the abuse and send a clear message that this is acceptable to you.  When you work to protect the abusers and cover it up you are just as bad as the abuser.

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In a Church a Priest, a Pastor a Minister or a Deacon are the ultimate figures of authority in a child's eyes and at a young age we are taught to "do what the Father says" or to "respect our elders".  When it's engrained at us at a young age to respect these elders we fall victim to those individuals that abuse their authority and their positions of trust for their own sexual pleasure.  We are manipulated into doing things that have lasting effects on who we are later in life. 

 

This abuse can take on many shapes when related to a Church or a religious environment.   These predators will take advantage of every detail of our lives and will attempt to abuse us when we are at our most weakest and most vulnerable.    In some cases, the religious leader grooms the child for the abuse over the course of months by befriending the child, offering sweets and gifts while slowing escalating the contact made (first light touching shoulder rubbing, etc) until the abuser has gained enough of the child trust to do what they please.  

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Others Church Abusers do not groom and instead take advantage of an opportunity when the child is alone to abuse them.  Historically, Churches are one of the few places a parent may not question or worry about what a child is up to in there by themselves...that level of trust is taken advantage of by church leaders to hurt children.  The child is often threatened with religious retaliation if they speak up or tell.

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So what happens to a child that was abused by a Religious leader?    Well typically the child has no one to turn to in their eyes.  It's their word against the abusers' and this is again, The Ultimate Authority figure in the parent's eyes so discussing it with their parents is out of the question.  They feel they couldn't tell friends or other relatives because of the stigma associated with being abused--that you were at fault and or you did something to deserve this.  Can you believe that?  Sexual Abuse being the victim's fault?!?!  That is what goes through a child's mind (an adults as well as we know).  Some didn't want people to question their sexuality back then so it was best to keep quiet to avoid facing a question of their sexuality or sexual preference.  And as the years went by, and the pain and hurt was buried..it made it less likely for a child now a teen or adult to ever come forward.  But then the effect really takes its toll....

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As a child victim growing up with an abuse secret, you develop problems with authority, trust issues, anger issues, depression, anxiety, sexual issues, night terrors, nightmares and post-traumatic stress...this affects you in so many areas of your life!  Many resort to self medication, have increased amounts or decreased amounts of sex, lash out against their peers and other authority figures, lose interest in the things they love and never fully recover.  Many harbor their secret and keep their experiences bottled away for decades not even sharing the information with their spouses and those closest to them.  Without the context of why we do the things we do our love ones cannot help and relationships suffer tremendously.

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If any of this makes sense to you or you have similar experiences with your church growing up, you may qualify for compensation and you may be able to get the vindication, justice and closure you rightfully deserve.  You will also help prevent abuse in so many others in the future which is the most important thing.   You can get justice without going public, without going to court and with out anyone ever finding out you came forward.  All calls are 100% confidential and what you tell us is privileged.  

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Please fill out the form below to have someone form our legal team contact you today to go over your options.  

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