Behind the pain nobody talks about: sexual abuse of Black boys - The Shocking Story

Ebony, June, 2003 by Nikitta A. Foston

IN Woodbridge, New Jersey, a 3-year-old boy was sexually assaulted and beat to death by a 10-year-old boy. In Harlem, a schoolteacher sodomized a 15-year-old former student and sent sexually graphic messages to him over the Internet. In Houston, a 12-year-old boy was abused and assaulted by his cousin.

In Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta, in cities across the United States, young Black boys are being abused and assaulted in foster homes, government-run prisons and detention centers in a shocking national problem that nobody talks about.

The statistics are explosive. One out of six boys is abused before age 16, and the rates are dramatically higher in Black areas marred by systemic poverty, broken homes, high unemployment rates and sociological problems.

Scared, alone, and sometimes imprisoned by shame, these young boys often suffer in silence, choosing to avoid public awareness of their victimization. "There are elements of shame and powerlessness associated with male children who are victims of sexual abuse," says Judith Adams, principal to over 600 incarcerated students at Jefferson Alternative School, a juvenile detention center in Chicago. "Because African-American boys are in an environment that applauds 'macho-ism,' they feel powerless when they are violated and they feel as though they have failed themselves by allowing something like this to happen. So many young men who haven't been exposed to anything other than abuse think it is simply a part of life."

A major reason for the increasing rates of sexual abuse in Black America is that young Black boys are indiscriminately arrested at an early age and sent to local or state facilities where they are routinely raped or assaulted. "Sexual assault, violence and abuse occur so often in group home settings and foster homes, and rehabilitative centers, simply because you don't have the quality of care or the necessary supervision. When you don't have a controlled environment, you don't have control," says Adams, whose detention center in Chicago offers single-celled, visible rooms in an attempt to limit such occurrences.

Yet, even in the supposed confines of a family environment, where a child should be protected, boys are still at risk. Poverty, racism and broken families exacerbate the problem. "We have young mothers who are under 30 years old who are trying to raise teenage children," says Adams. "We see our kids coming from mixed families and transitory families where the mother or father has numerous partners in and out of the house over short periods of time."

Part of the difficulty in dealing with child sexual abuse cases, experts say, is identifying the victim-perpetrator relationship. "In many cases, the abuse isn't thrust upon the boy all at once. It's often a slow process, or a courtship, where the perpetrator befriends the boy, gains his trust and creates avenues of access to him," says Dr. Nathan Hare of San Francisco.

In fact, a recent study found that over 78 percent of child victims knew their attackers. "A predator is less likely to be the natural father, but rather, a stepfather, an uncle, cousin or family friend who has access and interest in the child," says Dr. Hare. "It tends to be someone close by, someone they respect, and someone with the need and audacity to approach them."

Despite the alarming rate of sexual abuse against young Black boys, most male perpetrators are not homosexual. According to a study by the American Medical Association, 98 percent of males who raped boys reported that they were heterosexual. Additional research suggests that while male child molesters may have gender and/or age preferences, of those who seek out boys, the vast majority are not homosexual. They are pedophiles.

Recent allegations against some celebrities for sexual assault indicate that power and pedophilia are the catalysts behind many headline stories and that many abusers are reliving images of their own abuse. In fact, a study conducted by the Journal of Traumatic Stress found that up to 80 percent perpetrators were themselves abused.

In an effort to deal with the escalating problems of young Black men and sexual abuse, experts say encouraging parental involvement is integral to addressing the issue. "Unfortunately, some parents would rather keep quiet once they learn about the abuse of their child. They may choose to ignore it because the perpetrator is a respected individual such as a father, stepfather or a priest," says Adams.

Failing to deal with the problem may be more damaging than the problem itself, says Dr. Bell. Nor is a parent's anger or revenge an effective strategy. "I tell parents, 'Your child needs you, they don't need you in prison.' They need you to be supportive and to help them through this. Quite often, when a child is traumatized, it is the parents' reaction that shapes the child's response, and ultimately, their healing."

Parents, so often traumatized themselves by the abuse, often worry that their son will become homosexual or suffer from physical or emotional problems in adulthood as a result of the sexual assault. But, there is no compelling evidence, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, that sexual abuse fundamentally changes a boy's sexual orientation. In fact, the study found that over 80 percent of sexually abused boys never become adult perpetrators. But the abuse may lead to confusion about sexual identity and is likely to affect how the boy relates in intimate situations. "When children are abused early on in life, it alters their ability to make a decision as to who they want to be," says Adams.