UNSTACKING
THE DECK Meet the people fighting to protect and prevent child victims of sexual abuse and what they — and our kids — are up against
By Craig Manning Every nine minutes. That’s how often child protective service agencies in the United States substantiate a claim of child sexual abuse (CSA), according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). In total, one in every nine girls and one in every 53 boys will experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult before they turn 18. In the 2016 fiscal year alone, U.S. child protective service agencies found evidence for the sexual abuse of more than 57,000 children. These statistics are staggering and sobering, but no matter how often they are repeated or shared, misconceptions and misperceptions about CSA persist. One of the most common misconceptions of all? The belief among many people that their communities are an exception to the rule, that “it couldn’t possibly happen here.” AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH That false belief is just one of the many myths that Kyle Attwood grapples with on a regular basis as part of his job. Attwood is the chief assistant prosecuting attorney with the Grand Traverse County prosecutor’s office, a role that gives him a front-row seat to many of the criminal prosecutions that happen in northern Michigan’s largest county. When asked how often CSA cases come across his desk, Attwood doesn’t pull punches. “They’re unfortunately really common,” Attwood tells Northern Express. “We see a lot of those cases come through our office, and we know there are even more that that
don’t get reported. I think the statistic is about one in 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday, so it’s incredibly prevalent, and I think somewhere around 60 percent of those victims never tell anyone. So, it’s a smaller number that gets reported, and then obviously a smaller number that ends up in a criminal case. But still, when we’re talking about one in 10, the numbers across the community are huge.” In the American justice system, sexual assault and abuse are among the most under-reported and under-prosecuted of all crimes. According to RAINN, only 310 of
and has a right to face their accuser and to be present at their own trial. But these factors and others, Attwood says, can be a double-edged sword when it comes to seeking justice for sexual assault survivors — especially in cases where those survivors are kids or teenagers. “The deck really is stacked against them,” Attwood says of CSA victims. “[Pursuing a criminal case] involves them being judged, challenged, criticized, ridiculed, made out to be a liar, made out to be somebody who made this up. They have to be crossexamined by the defendant’s attorney, while
“In these cases, what has been done to the kids has really taken all of their control of the situation away,” Attwood says. “So, we try to give them as much power to help us make decisions on a case as we can. If they are comfortable moving forward, and if they go in with eyes open and understand the process, then we’re willing to walk through that with them. But I don’t like forcing a victim to go through something when they’re not willing or comfortable to do that, because it’s not a pleasant experience. As much control as we can give them, it’s a way of giving back some of what was taken from them in whatever abuse they suffered.”
“There’s certainly a perception out there, and it gets argued a lot in trial, that false reporting is much more prevalent than it actually is,” Attwood says.
THE JURY PROBLEM The Grand Traverse County prosecutor’s office often does something akin to a “dress rehearsal” for CSA victims who decide to move forward with their cases. That process involves taking the victim into the courtroom ahead of a hearing or trial, getting them comfortable in the space, and prepping them candidly on what questions they may be asked. Still, Attwood acknowledges that awareness and preparation can only go so far. Because once a case goes to trial, a CSA victim isn’t just facing the judge, the opposing counsel, and their assailant; they’re also facing a jury, with all the various beliefs and baggage that those 12 people might bring into the jury box with them. In Attwood’s view, the jury selection process for a CSA case “is as much about education and myth-busting as it is about selecting specific jurors to hear a case.” That’s because misconceptions about rape and sexual assault are hugely prevalent in the
every 1,000 sexual assaults are ever reported to the police. Just 50 of those reports ever lead to an arrest, 28 bring about a felony conviction, and 25 result in incarceration. All told, 975 of every 1,000 sexual assault perpetrators walk free. STACKING THE DECK Under-reporting is only part of the problem. The U.S. justice system is built, in part, on constitutional principles that protect the rights of the accused. A person is innocent until proven guilty, for instance,
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the perpetrator of the abuse is there in the courtroom staring at them the whole time. It really can be a re-victimization for them.” Because court hearings and jury trials can be so traumatic for young victims, Attwood says the prosecutor’s office tries to be “really victim-centered in the way we approach those cases.” To a certain extent, that victim-centered approach even involves letting the victim decide whether a case gets prosecuted or not — or, at least, whether it ends up in a courtroom with the young victim expected to serve as a key witness.
