good morning. welcome to "viewpoint," i'm pat lawson muse. it is most unfortunate, but a very, very sad reality. child sexual and physical abuse persists in our communities. it's estimated one in ten children will be sexually abused by their 18th birthday. safe shores, the d.c. children's advocacy center is working to provide safety to abused children and to prevent abuse. our guests are adrian thompson, a child and adolescent therapist for safe shores, ashley harrell is family advocacy associate at safe shores. thank you both for being with us this morning on "viewpoint."

ashley, let me start with you. child sexual abuse, how bad is it? we hear about it on the news. we know about it happening in our communities. what do the numbers say? >> unfortunately, pat, child sexual abuse is something happening to children before their 18th birthday, affecting one in ten children nationwide. d.c. specifically has a really staggering rate of child mall treatment, the second highest rate in the nation. >> child sex abuse and trafficking, are they related? >> absolutely. one thing we do know about children who are affected by child sex trafficking is oftentimes they've already experienced child sexual abuse at some point prior to being trafficked. >> adrian, you treat children. most of us think it's the most horrible thing that can possibly -- that we can possibly imagine. most of us can't imagine how it is that an adult abuses a child.

how does it affect a child to be violated this way at such an early age, at an age when they're still developing physically, mentally, spiritually emotionally. >> it affects children in different ways. i think that's what makes it so difficult to treat because a child might show up with irritability, anger, external lizing behaviors, doing things on people or out in the community. other times kids turn inward, a lot of depression, sadness. you see younger kids not hitting developmental milestones or not doing what they would be doing typically at that age. other kids just really taking a turn for the worst, building in to more risk taking behaviors and not performing the things they should be doing. school falls off, things like that. >> so is it easy to spot a child who is having a problem, or do you really need to know the

specific signs? >> i think oftentimes it would be easy to spot a child who is suffering from something. being able to pinpoint what the specific problem is a little more difficult. a lot of kids we see come in and have, in my word, more prototypical behavioral problems. it's not -- we use a trauma focus lens so we're able to identify what they're doing. >> children, for example, will act out in school or a child won't do their homework or they won't do what their parents tell them to do. sometimes it seems it's misunderstood. it often is, isn't it? >> very much so. >> why won't johnny do what i tell him to do? why won't he do his homework? why won't he listen when the teacher talks? >> that's a big part of the therapy i do, working with caregivers and parts of the community schools and informing

them what it means to be going through a trauma. if all things being equal, johnny is not listening to the mom, we can talk about what we can do on both sides, johnny's side and mom's side. if we know johnny went through a trauma, the behaviors coming from it aren't as easily identified and a lot of times these children go mislabled. we see kids that have stopped at other places and have had diagnoses and unsuccessful treatment. when they come here, we say, just look at this child through this lens. it makes sense to the caregiver, the parents, the schools. >> actually, i understand d.c. has the second highest level of ma maltreatment in the nation? >> that's right. it covers neglect, child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, certainly child sexual trafficking as well. safe shores specifically treats

children facing child sexual abuse as well as physical abuse. we've worked with a number of child sex trafficking cases as well. >> is there any indication or are there statistics that tell us why the number is so high in the nation's capital? >> i think that's a great question. what we do know is that there are many different causes contributing to child sexual abuse, and certainly on one level it's a decision an individual makes to violate that child. but one thing that safe shores has become focused on is our prevention effort. we're looking to train concerned community members to respond to and notify the appropriate authorities when they're seeing these risky indicators. >> we've got to take a break. we'll continue talking with safe shores right after this break. why let someone else have all the fun?

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welcome back. we're talking with safe shores this morning, advocacy center in the district of columbia that helps children who are victims of physical, sexual abuse and trafficking. ashley harrell, when it comes to child sexual trafficking, the national center for missing and exploited children say now it's a bigger problem, trafficking, that is, because it's moved from the street corners. it's no longer out in the open. it's moved to the internet where it's much darker. >> i think the internet is now a tool being very effectively used by child sex traffickers to advertise victims and to arrange opportunities for victims to be seen by customers in a way that is a lot harder to catch and to find. there's certainly a lot of efforts being made by law enforcement to kind of go in and catch people in the act, but it

is a new kind of frontier. it's a difficult change in the landscape of human trafficking. >> is there a typical victim? is there a profile of a child, adrian? >> for sex trafficking? >> or for sex abuse. >> no. i don't think -- i think it permeates all types of walks of life, socioeconomic, high or low, educated, non-educated. there's no type of person at greater risk. >> doesn't matter the sex, the race, the economics? >> we see -- >> family background? >> we see wide ranges of everything. i think in this work, unfortunately what you find is that the common thread is that there is no common thread. we have to actually be willing to meet every family where they're at because you can so often say, well, i know this family, i know the type of victim that will walk in my

door, and that's never the case. >> talk about your clients, where they come from, the experiences that they had and how you start down the road of he holing and help for them. >> typically when they come in, they're coming for a forensic interview, for the child to give their statement to law enforcement and child protective services about what they've been through. it is often a moment of crisis for families. the families coming to see us typically are very new to the law enforcement process, often coming in a state of confusion or fear if they're not sure if they're safe at that point from the perpetrator. as adrian already mentioned, we do see families from all walks of life. i think poverty is certainly a risk factor. we do see a lot of children and families coming from socioeconomic statuses where the parents or caregivers are having

to focus so intensely on meeting their children's financial needs and physical needs that they might be at a greater risk for victimization because of exposure to people. >> adrian, obviously many of your clients come to you via law enforcement. do you have people who report this kind of thing to you directly? and do you intervene in that case? >> at safe shores, the referrals come specifically through that portal. we get the phone calls and go through that kind of gateway. >> law enforcement, social services. >> other agencies like that. every so often there is something that some call will be made and come in, and then we'll have to make sure it's appropriate and send it through the appropriate channels and then they'll come to us. >> it takes obviously a lot of coordinati coordination, a lot of different agencies and organizations to deal with this problem. tell us about some of the other

groups that you work with. >> the multidisciplinary team in d.c. is comprised of safe shores, the children's advocacy center, the office of the attorney general and the u.s. attorney's office, metropolitan police department youth and family services division and then a segment of child and family services, their child protection services. we work closely with the child and adolescent protection center. they do the medical evaluations and their pathey're a part of children's national medical center. >> talk about some of the outcomes, the children you work with directly. >> in the clinical side we try to build resiliency in these children and that comes from showing up, the environment showing up, the caregivers showing up and the individuals. it's a slow process in which we take the child with the presenting problem, the traumas they've experienced and give them some skills.

sometimes it's breathing. sometimes it's ways to focus their attention. what their skills will do in the presence of us continually talking about the trauma, it's slowly working into a cold pool. if you jump right in, it's overwhe overwhelming, too cold, shocking the the system. but what we do, once we build the skills, we slowly walk them in to this. eventually they'll be able to sit with what happened to them, not be shocked by the immediate trauma, not be shocked by the things going on around them and have a skill set to help them regulate the process. once they get to that piece, true healing can happen and they can move on because they'll be able to deal with that and know the trauma doesn't define them, but also take that with them, because that's what life is, they'll have skill sets to help them as well. >> we'll continue our talk after this break. stay with us.

welcome back. we are talking with safe shores this morning on "viewpoint." ashley, relisha rudd was failed on so many levels, social services, the schools, other adults in the shelter where she and the family lived. talk about her case, where you think everybody did fail, and has there been improvement as a result of her case in communication, coordination between the agencies involved? >> that's a great question, pat. i can't agree more that there was essentially a failure of multiple systems to recognize what she was experiencing and to respond appropriately in time. fortunately there have been changes made. since that point i think there's been a strong push for prevention programs and trainings so individuals in the community shelters like where

she was living or even within the schools have more knowledge and tools to be able to respond appropriately and notice the red flags of child sexual abuse. luckily that's something that safe shores is now providing and doing actively out in partner agencies, but we also offer it to community members as a whole within our facility. if anybody is interested, they can visit safeshores.org to find out about that training. >> adrian, there are many children who are victims of abuse and there are children who witness abuse. are those children just as traumatized? >> yes. i think the trauma -- we can categorize it as different, but responses are very similar. we see people who witness violence or witness other types of abuse lose a part of them in the same manner as someone who is a victim of that abuse. i see plenty of kids who in their play which is how they work a lot of it out, if you put a g.i. joe in the hands of a

young guy and say play, instead of building a bridge or attacking an enemy or something like that with their imagination, you see a lot of vebl abuse, a lot of mirrored physical abuse. when you understand in his imagination, in the core of who he is conflict. this is how you engage with people, how you do all these other things, that man will go on having problems building bonds with friends, engaging with teachers, taking commands, being a part of the team, along with the safety that he does not have. witnesses abuse is just as traumatic because everything is there. you get that startle response. you get that fear. you actually have somebody who you are afraid of even if it's not happening to you. it has all the hallmarks of being abused, just missing that physical violence towards yourself. >> do you treat that child the same way, as a child who has been abused? >> yes, definitely. a person who has witnessed

trauma has trauma symptoms, has been traumatized. so we treat -- our treatment is better defined for helping kids deal with trauma. trauma will manifest itself in a lot of different ways. just because they aren't the, quote, unquote, victim of a particular act does not mean they don't need our services and doesn't mean we can't treat them. we treat them and assess the issues the same way we would the same as someone who is actually a victim. >> ashley, do children who are abused or witness abuse become abusers in the majority of the cases? >> in the majority of the cases, no. i think that's a common myth about children who experience abuse. healing is very possible. many children who experience abuse will go on to lead normal, healthy, happy lives. they need support and appropriate therapeutic services to get there. >> the children range in -- what are the ages? >> from as young as 4 to the age

of 18 that we see. >> you provide counsel for 4-year-olds? >> yes, it's a different process than what we might think. a lot of it is engagement to communities, engagement to caregivers and parents and really creating a safe space for that child so they can be held in a safe environment. so once those children find that safe environment, then they're able to either work through some of the trauma through various modalities, either play, artwork, things like that, and then kind of work through that process, maybe non-verbally because a lot of those kids don't quite have the words to talk about how they're feeling. >> ashley, you told me one of the services you provide is prevention. how do you prevent this? >> i think child sexual abuse thrives in a culture of silence. part of the way to prevent child sexual abuse is to become more comfortable talking about it, both with other adults as well as with children. certainly we don't want to scare our children. but telling children what the

appropriate names of their body parts are is one way to confront child sexual abuse because it allows children to identify where they're being touched and feel it's an okay thing to mention. another thing adults can do is learn to recognize the signs and symptoms. rather than attributing them to bad behavior or misconduct, acknowledging this could be the sign of a deeper issue and making the appropriate report. >> of course, if they see signs, that would generally mean that the abuse is already happening? >> it could mean that the abuse is already happening. one thing we know about child sexual abuse is that it often takes place through a process we refer to as grooming. grooming is a slow and steady process, so it's hard for the child to identify when the abuse really occurs. so it might start with some touching of the thigh or soming tickling or secret games and slowly build into something that you or i would identify as child sexual abuse. >> we'll take another break, but

we'll be right back. stay with us.

continuing our talk now with safe shores. ashley and adrian, we've talked about a lot of the services you provide. talk now about how important the family is, and tell us about the kind of support you offer the family, because that's key, in a child who has been abused, is being abused and preventing abuse. >> absolutely. with children the primary sense of support often comes from the family. one of the things safe shores does is to work to support parents and caregivers through the process, so they not only understand what their child is going through, but they're in a better position to respond to any future instances of abuse or

attempts to abuse. i think for children, the response of their caregiver has a huge impact on how they're going to perceive their abuse in the future and their ability to heal. we try to help parents have a sense of what to say to their children, how to respond, either in the immediate aftermath or much further down the line. i think parents are often concerned about their ability to deal with child sexual abuse because it's not something any parent wants to prepare for. >> it's a difficult thing to even think about, let alone talk about. >> it is, certainly. a big role that the family advocacy program at safe shores plays is to empower the parent, give them language, things to say that will be reassuring to their children but also comforti comforting. because that sense of safety is what the child is looking for. >> adrian, it's hard to provide the therapy for the children without helping the family, siblings. >> oh, yeah. it continues straight into the

clinical side where we see -- we see the family unit. a lot of times we'll have one caregiver, one mom, one dad, both or neither. a lot of times these children are in foster care, and we have to learn to work around those barriers for that child. a lot of times we spend almost as much time with the caregivers and whoever comes and brings the kid than with the child themselves. we do a lot of debunking of myths, battling cultural and racial stereotypes they might already have, empower them to get their own treatment if needed, be able to have the language. what i often say is the child will not be able to outgrow that caregiver. >> adrian thompson and ashley harrell, thank you so much, from safe shores. we have indicated -- put the website up there for people who want more information about your program and your child abuse hotline 202-671-7233.

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home ward bound as millions prepare to travel home for the long holiday weekend. they may encounter rain. "storm team 4" radar showing how it may slow down the commute. what he told investigators that could indicate a motive. good morning. welcome to "news4 today" on this sunday. i'm adam tuss. >> we made it to sunday. >> we made it that i'm angie goff. >> we're off to cooler start. raindrops. >> lauren ricketts so kind to join us. >> hello, hello, happy sunday. yes, we did make it after a little bit