According to Ciivise, only 8% of incest victims were believed and protected when they spoke out

“ What is this society that doesn’t listen to its children? » protests Emmanuelle Béart in the magazine’s columns SHE. When it comes to incest, the silence does not stem so much from the inability of the victims to speak but from the defective listening they receive. This is the sad observation drawn up by Ciivise, after having collected almost 27,000 testimonies in two years.

On Thursday 21 September the commission published a new summary, with dizzying results: only 8% of people who were victims of sexual violence in childhood benefited from it “positive social support » when they revealed the facts. Too few had the hope of hearing from a trusted person to respond.” I believe you, I protect you.”

Believing is one thing, protecting is another

The authors of the report are unanimous: “ The analysis of the testimonies confirms the importance of the response of the person to whom the child confides. Unfortunately, it is highlighted that, most of the time, this response is not protective »:

What these witnesses clearly show us is that sexual violence is never a face-to-face encounter between an attacker and a victim. There is always a third party. Whether it is a person close to the child, an institution or society as a whole (…) The importance of the positioning of the third party reveals the political dimension of sexual violence against children. These are not primarily a private matter, they are a problem of public order and public health.

Civil Society also remembers this “In almost one in two cases, rapes and sexual assaults are committed in the presence or with the knowledge of other family members “.

However, even when the child confides and is believed, his protection is not assured. Seven out of ten confidants believe the child, the report adds, but almost one in two victims” it is not placed[e] safe and without receiving treatment “. Worse, “in almost 50% of the testimonies, the confidant does not reassure the child: he asks him not to talk about it (27%) and even places the blame on him (22%)”.

Protective mothers are not protected

Ciivise adds that mothers are often the child’s first confidants. However, when they speak to early childhood professionals or the justice system, they encounter brutal rejection and often even “ accused of manipulating their children and institutions ” underlines the report, which further emphasizes that “ almost six [professionnels ] out of ten did not protect the child after discovering the violence (58%) “.

In some cases, protective mothers even lose custody of their children, or even parental rights, and expose themselves to legal proceedings when they refuse to hand over the child to the parent suspected of incest.

Ciivise is still due to submit a final report on November 20, before disappearing at the end of December.