Safe Sanctuary Training, Section 1

1. +
Section 1: What We Need to
Know
About Child Abuse

2. +
 That equals 9700 children abused each day,
 400 children abused each hour,
 Nearly 7 children abused every minute.
Every year for the last decade US state and local
Child Protection Services receive almost 3.5 million
referrals of children being abused or neglected.

3. + In light of these statistics, it seems any organization
involved with children is a place where abuse can
occur.
What makes the risk for churches especially high?
①First, churches behave as relatively trusted organizations
relying upon their members and their leaders to conduct
themselves appropriately. Sometimes this trusting attitude
persists even in the face of questions or reports of
misconduct.
②Second, churches routinely provide opportunities for close
contact and for close personal relationships with children.
Indeed, these are nurtured and encouraged as we try to live
out the gospel message.

4. + In this section we will:
1. Identify the types of child abuse,
2. Detail several factors about when child abuse occurs,
and
3. Review the indicators of child abuse and how it can
happen
Recognizing the frequency of child abuse is only part of
the task. As a church we must become knowledgeable
about the indicators of possible abuse and how to
safely carry out our ministries without providing
opportunities for abusers to harm our children.
Why this training is so important:
The church must and certainly can work to assure
children and families that abuse of children will not be
tolerated or ignored in the community of faith.

5. +
 Physical Abuse – A person deliberately and intentionally causes
bodily harm.
 Emotional Abuse – A person exposes a child to spoken and/or
unspoken violence or emotional cruelty. It sends a message of
worthlessness, being unloved, and undeserving of love.
 Neglect – Abuse in which a person endangers a child’s health, safety,
or welfare through negligence.
 Sexual Abuse – Sexual contact between an adult and a child.
 Ritual Abuse – Abuse in which physical, sexual, psychological
violations of a child are inflicted regularly, intentionally, and in a
stylized way.
Types of Abuse
Source: Safe Sanctuaries - Reducing the Risk of Child Abuse in the Church, by Joy Thornburg
Melton (Discipleship Resources, 2006)

6. + The following characteristics may be indicators of abuse, but they
are not necessarily proof:
Physical Abuse
• Hostile and aggressive behavior
toward others,
• Fearfulness of parents and/or
adults,
• Destructive behavior toward self,
others, or property,
• Inexplicable fractures or bruises
inappropriate for the child’s
developmental stage,
• Burns, facial injuries, pattern of
repetitious bruising.
Emotional Abuse
• Exhibits severe depression and/or
withdrawal,
• Severe lack of self-esteem,
• Failure to thrive,
• Threatens or attempts suicide,
• Speech and/or eating disorders,
• Goes to extremes to seek adult
approval,
• Extreme passive/aggressive behavior.

7. +
Abusers: Who
Are They?
 The abusers of children are
more often than not familiar
adults trusted by children,
 Less than 20% of child abuse is
perpetrated by strangers,
 Abusers are found in every
racial, ethnic, economic, and
social group,
 They can look like us.
 A person exerts his or her power
over a child in ways that harm or
exploit the child.
 The abuser is powerful. The child
is vulnerable.
 Power from an abuser can come
from size, position, knowledge,
money, or even food.
 Vulnerability comes from a child
physically smaller and weaker,
intellectually less mature, and
economically dependent on an
adult.
How Could it
Happen?