Final Projects - PSY 2012 - Essay Example

She is enrolled by her guidance counselor in an alternative educational program where Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), her literacy teacher, takes a special interest in Precious, as does Mrs. Weiss (Mariah Carey), her social worker. The film chronicles Precious' evolution from an obviously dissociative, uninvolved, inarticulate victim of domestic violence to an independent individual, able to communicate about herself and her life and hopeful about her own future prospects as well as those of her children.

Precious stresses not only the critical need for intervention on behalf of victims of child sexual abuse, but also for continuing social and psychological support if interventions are to have any lasting positive effects. It is very difficult to say with any certainty just how many children in the US experience incestuous abuse due to extreme shame on the part of victims and the occult nature of the crime. Incest is usually defined as sexual contact between individuals too closely related to legally marry, but many critics have called that definition too broad, particularly where children are concerned.

A more comprehensive definition says that “[Incest] is a violation of the child where he or she lives -- literally and metaphorically. A child molested by a stranger can run home for help and comfort. A victim of incest cannot." (Vanderbilt, 1992, p. 51) Though it is widely considered to be the most common form of child sexual abuse, it is also one of the most under-reported crimes against children. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) only 7% of children who were victims of substantiated sexual abuse reports were the victims of strangers (RAINN, 2009).

It is estimated that up to 1/3 of all American children are sexually abused before they turn 18 (Bogorad, 1999). Sexual assault of children can be very difficult to detect because it occurs in private, and because perpetrators do not always leave any evidence of their attacks. Even in cases like that of Precious, who had two children and a sexually transmitted disease as evidence of the sexual abuse she endured at the hands of her father, most sexual abuse of children is not reported to police or dealt with in a criminal setting at all.

The justice system is primarily involved in cases where children are attacked or abused by strangers, while poorly-equipped social service agencies handle intrafamilial violence. Although most social service workers are legally required to report cases of child abuse to the police, individuals who commit incest are unlikely to ever spend time in jail for their crimes, even if they do leave incontrovertible evidence of their crimes. Precious portrays incest and other forms of child abuse within the context of an extremely marginalized minority-- impoverished, urban African-Americans-- but in fact the sexual abuse of children is an act which spans socio-economic, racial and ethnic boundaries.

Even the most severe abuse may occur in any family regardless of race, color, creed or financial status. The statistics surrounding child sexual abuse are shocking and horrifying, particularly in light of the fact that most such abuse goes unreported and most perpetrators are never formally accused. Estimates of PTSD cases