Healing the Invisible Wound    It is probably one of the more hidden injuries that results from sexual violence.  It thrives on being unseen, sliding stealthily against walls and crouching covertly in corners. Hovering silently in the shadows, darkness is its bosom friend. For Westerners, it is an undesirable guest. We refrain from speaking of […]

The United States is the largest producer and purchaser of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).  The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that in 2022 the CyberTipline received 32,059,029 reports:  31,901,234 apparent child sexual abuse material; 80,524 online enticement, including “sextortion”;  18,336 child sex trafficking and 12,906 child sexual molestation.  In addition, there were […]

The Internet Watch Foundation has uncovered what they describe as “a world of text-to-image technology.  You type in what you want to see in online generators and the software generates the image.”  Their first investigative report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) was published in early 2023 and was entitled, ‘How […]

The United States is experiencing and unprecedented surge in gang activity.  Unfortunately, the Department of Justice data regarding gangs and their criminal activity is sparse and dated.  The most recent report published in 2011 entitled the, National Gang Threat Assessment, noted that gangs were responsible for “an average of 48% of violent crimes in the […]

Survivors of sex trafficking face the issue of not having people believe them and/or shifting the fault onto them for the trafficking. This concept is called victim blaming. People make assumptions which lead to the person being blamed for the harm that was done to them. Victim blaming can be indirect or direct. Example: “Why […]

What internet sites have more viewers that Amazon, Netflix, YouTube and Twitter combined every month? Pornography.1   Do you know how many suspected online sex offenders the Internet Crimes Against Children task force (ICAC) arrested in one 2019 national sting operation?   One thousand seven hundred.2    Do you know how many visits PornHub alone reported in 2018? […]

We live in an era of unimaginable access to the world through technology. Depending on how large your family is, you may be painfully aware of this as you run out of electrical outlets when everyone wants to charge their devices. Technology is wonderful when used to connect with family around the world, to shop […]

Ever seen the movie Taken? Released in 2008, this movie featured a father, Liam Nesson, passionately fighting to save his daughter after she was kidnapped and brought into a sex trafficking ring. Though the movie’s goal was entertainment rather than education, even after 14 years, the anti-human trafficking movement has still found itself trying to […]

The word ‘grooming’ has been in the news a lot during the summer and fall as more children are returning to school in person, post-COVID. Why is that? What is grooming? How would a parent recognize it and what should they do if they suspect their child is being groomed? Grooming Defined All of us […]