There are harrowing reports from women of their sexual abuse as girls. It often happened in families, a room that was sealed off from the outside.
Berlin – The independent commission for dealing with child sexual abuse presented a study on sexual violence in the family on Tuesday (11.00 a.m.). It is also about the social reappraisal of this long repressed topic from 1945 to the present.
The commission was convened by the federal government in 2016. Since then, 1,041 affected people have reported. In interim reports from 2017 and 2019, it was said that in more than 80 percent of the cases, the victims were girls or young women. More than half of the victims experienced sexual abuse in the family and close relatives. The perpetrators were almost always men, often the fathers.
The victims were often neither believed nor helped. Other family members, especially mothers, often did not react despite their knowledge and tolerated the abuse. There was also no help from school or youth welfare offices. In addition, affected children and adolescents suffered from abuse and neglect, sometimes also in schools, churches, homes or leisure facilities. dpa
