Posted: January 26th, 2016

What can be done through social policy to improve treatment options for sexual abuse victims? Explain.

Children who are victims of sexual abuse pose specific concerns to a professional counselor who is responsible for providing treatment to the child. Consider the following scenario:

Jeremy is an 8-year-old boy who used to exhibit normal and happy emotions. Jeremy’s mother, Natalie, works a lot of hours and does not have the time to spend with him. Natalie has entrusted the help of her younger brother, Jacob, who is an unemployed 32-year-old male, to watch Jeremy. Jacob lives with Jeremy and Natalie. Over a period of about 6 months, Jeremy was exhibiting emotions of sadness, being very quiet, and acting withdrawn, which Natalie had witnessed one day while home. Natalie asked Jeremy if everything was okay, and Jeremy quietly replied, “no.”

A letter from Jeremy’s teacher was sent home to Natalie describing her concerns of how Jeremy’s grades in class had dropped and how Jeremy exhibited “some type of emotional withdrawal.” One day, Natalie was sorting Jeremy’s clothes to wash when she saw blood in Jeremy’s undergarments. Natalie had initially believed that Jeremy was missing his father, who was serving in the military in Afghanistan, thus concluding that that was the reason for Jeremy’s change of emotions. Upon speaking with Jeremy about missing his father, Jeremy exhibited little to no emotion, and barely spoke at all. Natalie became very concerned and asked Jerem