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Most people imagine abusers
to be shadowy and frightening strangers. In fact, most often these
abusers can range from family members to acquaintances and someone
the victim trusts explicitly. Rarely are abusers complete strangers.
Contrary also to what
people may think, a person who abuses a child is usually not someone
with a psychiatric disorder. They are usually indistinguishable
from anyone else. In fact, often an abuser is a "regular"
person who leads a "routine" life and is known to the
victim, but has no inhibition or qualms for having sex with children.
Furthermore, child sexual abusers
do not share any specific common characteristics:-
4Though
most abusers are men, women can also be abusers.
4They do not belong to
any particular socio-economic class.
4Education,
or the lack of it, does not define an abuser.
4The
abuser need not have any psychological/emotional problems.
4Abuser
can be married and have children of their own.
4The abuser may or may
not have history of abuse in his/her childhood.
When abusers plans on targeting a child,
they keep in mind the following factors:
4Picking
someone who can be safely victimized.
4Spending
time observing and then tricking the child into performing sexual
acts so that the victim appears to be willing
partner.
4Manipulates
an apparently "willing victim" through encouragement,
coercion, surveillance, constraint and bribery.
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