I met with Gail Brown from Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PCR). This meeting went fairly well, however I still have no information on what i should do for my action plan. Gail did give me great ideas for my presentation and I also picked up a lot of presentation skills from her. I am currently working on my outline and I am having a difficult time with all this extra information.

I think its about time I start blogging!!!

Welp i have another interview with Gale (i forget her last name). I will be meeting with her on July 8!! Im excited!! I think this is going somewhere.

I am not having many problems talking about my project or coming up with thoughts from my research. However I am concerned because I haven’t came up with a solid action plan. I have found that child sexual abuse is a very difficult topic to take action with.

Did You Know?

· 75% of children did not disclose within a year of the first incident and 18% waited 5 years
· Almost 3-quarters of children did not reveal abuse when first questioned
· Persons under 18 years of age account for 67% of all sexual assault
· Children under 12 years of age account for 34%
· Children under 6 years of age account for 1 of every victims (14%) of the cases
· 90% of the rapes of children younger than 12, the child knew the offender
· 1 and 4 girls and 1 and 6 boys will be sexually assaulted by age 18
· Teens 16 to 19 are 3 ½ times more likely to be victims of rape than general population
· Girls are raped far more than boys at the rate of 1.6 per 1000 compared to 0.4 per 1000 for boys
· 74% of sexual abuse disclosures are accidental
· 23,000 men are forcibly raped or sexually assaulted each year in the United States
· 10% of female rape or sexual assault victims identified an intimate as the offender, 57% of rapes and sexual assaults came at the hands of a person the female victim called a friend or acquaintance and 2% were identified as a relative
· 37% of female prison inmates and 14% male inmates were once victims of child abuse
· Children exposed to sexual abuse are more than 3.8 times more likely to become drug users
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Latest-Child-Abuse-Statistics&id=441580
http://www.pcar.org/about_sa/faqs_sa.html
· An estimated 39 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse exists in America today
· 40% are abused by older or larger children whom they know
· 10% are abused by strangers
· The median age for reported abuse is 9 years old
http://www.darkness2light.org/KnowAbout/statistics_2.asp

“Sexual Abuse on Children”

1. What are the effects on a child’s body after sexual abuse has occurred?

2. Who are most likely to be the perpetrators?
3. What kind of mental effect can child abuse have on a child?
4. How can sexual abuse be identified?
5. What kind of behavior do children display after being sexually abused?

Possible questions. Number 1 is my essential question.

Now that I have a topic, I have found that there is so much information to be gathered about the effects of sexual abuse on children. The most difficult thing for me at this point is picking out what I am most interested in. Am I interested in the cause, the effects or the symptoms?? I need help!

As my graduation project, I have decided to research the effect of sexual abuse. I have looked at a variety of different topics that include child abuse, topics such as the effects, the symptoms and the causes. My project may include several of these topics but my pain topic will be focused on the effects of children after being sexually abused.

I have obviously heard alot about the graduation project at City high. As a freshmen I witnessed a graduation project presentation of a previous 12th grader. Her topic focused on the City High dress code. I didn't get to talk to her much about her experiences or about her project. I have given my graduation project much thought but i haven't come up with a topic at this point. Because this project is going to determine whether I graduate on time or not I would like to give my topic alot of thought and make sure I don't have an uninteresting topic. I am very concerned about this project, especially because it is so crucial for my graduation. I am worried that the topic that I come up with will be a failure and I am concerned about the amount of information I will have to gather for this project. Overall I am very concerned about this project.