Once again I am pleased to provide a link to an article which provides invaluable information about a subject much discussed on this blog, the problem of sexual abuse. As in the past it is done in a Shaila and Teshuva way. A letter writer asks a good question and Rabbi Horowitz answers it. The website is Charedi oriented and is part of a Chicago Community Kollel program. The question is framed from a Charedi perspective. But it is relevant to all of us. Rabbi Horowitz’s insights are quite valuable, in my view. His perspective is well worth the time and effort to read. Here is an excerpt. In dealing with the question of numbers of children in the Torah world who are abused:
“How many children are we talking about? How many abuse victims are there? I posed this question to the three experts mentioned above. Each of them responded by saying that there is no research that they know of in the frum community and they have no hard numbers. But when I asked if they would say that there are a) tens, b) hundreds or c) thousands [of abused children], each responded that there are surely hundreds. In fact, Dr. Pelcovitz mentioned that he gets about 5 calls per week from parents seeking help for their abused children or from adults seeking counseling from scars left from childhood abuse.”
