This news article haunts me. This toddler may never know what happened, I'm not sure I believe a single event that occurs at this age scars a child for life.
I constantly ask what possesses a man to sexually assault a woman, to think that kind of contact, control, and abuse are acceptable. When a 7 and 9 year old decide to have sexual contact with a 2 year old girl, there is something so drastically wrong with their heads I can't wrap my own around it. I will admit naivety, but, I'm not sure I knew what sex was when I was 9 years old. If I did, there was no part of me that thought having sex with a baby was a good idea... Where is the teaching of proper and age-appropriate play? I don't feel, at this time, that this should be classified as rape. I believe rape is a conscious choice to hurt and demean another person while exhibiting sexual power over him/her and I hope these two children were NOT acting on power and control... That said, this story is not about simply touching a girl. That is not uncommon among children-I forget the number or where it was from, but over half of children have touched themselves or others sexually before the age of 10. This is not in some pedophilic or sexual behavior, it's curiosity. Yes, it's taught to be inappropriate-and it is, but it's fairly harmless and common behavior. Such normal childhood behavior would not have landed these children in treatment based fostercare... What were these two young boys exposed to that put this idea in their head? Beyond the idea, they knew it was wrong. When questioned by authorities, both denied doing it each implicating the other boy. To lie in a situation like this shows the boys knew their actions were wrong-though, perhaps not how wrong... I feel pain for these boys, whatever they saw in their young lives to give them the idea to sexually assualt a baby horrifies me. One lives with his mother, the other with his grandmother-I am disgusted by these people who have clearly failed to teach these children right from wrong and how to treat other human beings...
However, stories like these make me wonder how many men who abuse women were exposed to this as young children. It's not an excuse-there comes a point where people are responsible for their actions and reactions regardless of how they were raised. It still raises the question of the culpability of the parents in situations where a teen or young adult abuses another person... What role did their upbringing play?
There have been numerous times I've wondered about what AY saw and was exposed to as a child. I know his dad divorced his mom when he was 10 and his dad moved to China. I really know nothing else. He never really spoke of it-the one time he did he was crying (rare display of emotion). It must not have been pretty. His step dad was very controlling of him and his mom and was certainly not a positive influence in his life. I want to know if these past man-woman relationships in his life warped him so badly that they pushed him to be the abuser that he was?
The childhood that AY didn't cause him to do the things he did to me, but one has to wonder the influence they had on him and his view of treating women.
This is just one set of events in AY's life that I wonder about. JN has a set that is entirely his own.
Anyways, about the article. I hope the guardians are punished for the behaviors of their children. I will be utterly appalled if they are let off in a case where they clearly were exposing these young boys to ferociously inappropriate behavior. If 7 and 9 year olds can conceive the idea of rape, how do you think these same boys will view women and sex as teens and adults? It is no wonder that some men do not show respect toward women-they are raised believing girls are just objects that they can do unto as they please.
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