The Foundation for Family Victims exists because society has failed its most vulnerable members. Children’s voices are ruthlessly silenced, their pain dismissed, their trauma ignored. This willful blindness perpetuates a cycle of abuse that destroys lives and erodes the very fabric of our communities.
Recognizing the Signs
As a child psychotherapist, I’ve witnessed firsthand the devastation wrought by sexual abuse. Unlike other traumas – death, illness, divorce – child sexual abuse festers in silence, its tendrils reaching deep into a child’s psyche. The changes are unmistakable to those who care to look: mood swings, withdrawal from affection, a haunted look in once-bright eyes. Yet too often, these red flags are rationalized away by those who should be the child’s fiercest protectors.
Let’s be crystal clear: when a child’s behavior suddenly shifts, when they recoil from touch or lash out in rage, it’s not a phase. It’s a desperate cry for help. Ignore it, and you become complicit in their continued abuse.
The ugly truth is that our society values the appearance of normalcy over the well-being of children. Families turn a blind eye to abuse within their ranks, prioritizing reputation and misplaced loyalty over the safety of their youngest members. This cowardice allows predators to operate with impunity, weaving their toxic influence ever deeper into the family dynamic.
A Case Study: Little Girl Lost
I once worked with a brilliant two-year-old girl whose words should have shattered her family’s complacency: “Why is he doing this? Why is he taking off my diapers when I’m in bed trying to sleep?” Instead of swift action, her pleas were met with denial and deflection. The adults in her life, too weak to face the horrific reality, chose to sacrifice her well-being on the altar of their own comfort.
This willful ignorance isn’t mere negligence – it’s a form of abuse itself. Every dismissed concern, every rationalized behavior, every “benefit of the doubt” given to an abuser instead of a child, drives the victim deeper into isolation and despair.
The consequences of this collective failure are catastrophic. Children grow into adults carrying the weight of unacknowledged trauma, their lives derailed by the very people who should have protected them. Families fracture, communities crumble, and the cycle of abuse perpetuates itself across generations.
Our legal system, meant to be the last line of defense for the vulnerable, has instead become a breeding ground for further injustice. Family Courts across the United States have blood on their hands, blurring the lines between protection and exploitation. They’ve created a perverse ecosystem where children are treated as commodities, their suffering monetized by a cadre of unscrupulous lawyers, judges, and so-called experts.
Anomie and the Breakdown of Social Norms
This isn’t mere incompetence – a deliberate erosion of the moral foundations that separate us from barbarism. Emile Durkheim called it anomie: a state of normlessness where society’s ethical guardrails have been torn away. We’re careening towards that abyss, propelled by our cowardice and willful blindness.
The time for half-measures and polite discourse is long past. We must confront this cancer in our society with unflinching resolve. The Foundation for Family Victims doesn’t just advocate – we fight. We will drag the enablers of abuse into the light, from the family members who choose silence to the corrupt officials who profit from children’s pain.
Our message is simple: If you turn a blind eye to the abuse of a child, you are no better than the abuser. There is no neutrality in this fight. You’re either actively protecting children, or you’re part of the system that preys upon them.
The choice is yours. But know this – we will not rest until every child is heard, every abuser is held accountable, and every system that enables this evil is torn down and rebuilt with the protection of the innocent as its sole purpose.
The children are watching. The children are waiting. What side of history will you be on?
