“For the victims of incest, it is a perpetual suffering”

• A year after the launch of its appeal, the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise) reports having received nearly 16,000 testimonies from victims.

• La Ciivise presents, this Wednesday, a first file on the consequences in adulthood of victims of sexual violence, developed from several stories collected.

• The body, which calls on the public authorities to act, has developed five "realistic and achievable" recommendations, explains to "20 Minutes" Édouard Durand, judge and co-president of the Ciivise.

After a year of work and 16,000 testimonies received, it is time for a first assessment for the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise).

The body, created in January 2021, will present this Wednesday evening a file on the traumatic consequences in adulthood for victims of violence in childhood.

Calling on the public authorities to act, the Incest Commission, created on the model of the Sauvé commission on sexual abuse in the Church (Ciase), makes five "realistic and achievable" recommendations, according to Édouard Durand, judge and co-president of the Ciivise. , with whom

spoke.

How did you collect these victim testimonies?

We opened the call for testimonies on September 21, 2021. The victims had five options: telephone platforms with specialized interlocutors, written exchanges - by post or e-mail -, an online questionnaire on our site, hearings at the commission, and finally the public meetings.

In the hours that followed the opening of the telephone platforms, we received hundreds and hundreds of calls.

Some said to us: “I have been waiting for this moment all my life”.

To date, we have 16,414 testimonials, but the number is changing every day.

Did you expect to receive so many?

We knew this reality was extremely important.

But that number says how great the need was and how massive a problem incest is.

In one of its reports, Ciase counted 5.5 million victims of sexual violence during their childhood.

According to the testimonies we have received, the median age of the first violence is 7 years old for girls, and 8 years old for boys.

But a part is victim before 5 years.

As for the average age of the testimonies received, it is 44 years old, but we have had much older people.

What are the traumatic consequences that you have observed in the victims?

First of all, we must realize that, for these victims, it is not a question of a distant thought, of a bad memory that we sometimes think about.

It is a perpetual suffering.

This trauma interferes in all spheres of existence, from the most social - such as schooling or professional life - to the most intimate - affective life and sexuality.

Seven out of ten people report consequences on their mental health.

Some tell us: “it's the first time I've been out for several months”.

This is called avoidance behavior, for example.

Three out of ten people mention a physical impact, such as back pain.

For 25% of people, there is an impact on school or professional life, with the impossibility of going to school or the office, for example.

As for emotional and sexual difficulties, they are 30% to declare it.

It can be lack of sexuality, vulnerability, multiple partners, pain in relationships.

I would like readers to grasp this reality, because it is profoundly unfair.

You had made twenty recommendations in March 2022. Today, you only insist on five.

Why ?

The debates on the vote on the 2023 budget will open soon.

We wanted to insist on five recommendations that require the allocation of financial resources.

First, there is the systematic identification of victims.

Each year, 160,000 children are victims of sexual violence.

You have to go find them to put them in safety, that all the professionals in contact with children ask them the question.

Everyone must be trained for this.

Then, a support unit must be created for these professionals.

A liberal doctor, isolated in his office, faced with a child who confides to him that he is a victim, finds himself in a situation of intense stress.

He must be able to call a multidisciplinary support cell, where he will be able to talk to other doctors who will help him write the report without putting himself in professional danger.

Thirdly, we must strengthen the judicial police services specializing in cyber-paedocrime.

They are 30 in France, against 300 in Great Britain.

Of course, that has consequences.

Fourth, we must guarantee and reimburse specialized care in psychotrauma.

Professionals must be trained, it's a specialty, it can't be improvised.

Some people tell us: “I can't pay for my child's care”.

Finally, we need a major public campaign to prevent sexual violence against children.

The last one took place in 2002, twenty years ago.

These are realistic and achievable measures that will increase the protection of children.

They must become a reality.

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• Justice

• Incest

• Child

• Child protection

• Sexual violence