One in nine girls will experience sexual abuse at the hand of an adult.

For boys, the probability is one in 53.

Those figures come from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. But they are more than numbers — especially in light of some recent cases of child assault in the headlines.

“Violence starts young, and age is a risk factor, and I think that’s largely because people target vulnerable populations,” Sexual Assault Resource & Counseling Center President and CEO Ali Perrotto said. “It’s easy to discount children.”

“I think in our society, we don’t want to believe that bad things happen to our kids,” she said.

Preventing abuse

In cases where the perpetrator is not a relative, they establish access to the child by making themselves “unexpendable” to the victim’s family, Perrotto said.

“It’s insidious, because it’s a part of the abuse itself,” she said. “It’s that building of trust and rapport and building credibility that ultimately makes it so much easier to believe the perfectly reasonable adult who has been lovely for a really long period of time, and makes it much simpler to discount what a child is saying.”

There are things a parent or guardian can do to help their child better understand their body and their control over it, according to Perrotto. Sometimes, it is as simple as respecting a child’s decision when they choose not to hug an adult.

“You have to, in some ways, trust the child’s decision making and send the message to them that their bodies are respectable,” she said. “It’s something that can be respected, and their choices can be respected.”

But adults also have to keep a keen eye for predatory behavior and set strict boundaries in their own social circles, Perrotto added.

“We know that if we want to prevent child sexual abuse, it’s not children we should be talking to,” she said. “It’s really the responsibility of the adults in the community to be stewards for children, to make sure that they’re safe, that they’re cared for.”

Multiple cases

Cases against the Catholic church have made the news in the last few years, but there are many more incidents coming to light years after they happened.

In 2012, a 12-year-old girl told her substitute teacher a man had sexually assaulted her.

The report went to Children and Youth Services, which sent it to Franklin Township Police. The victim told authorities the man touched her inappropriately on multiple occasions. She named Gregory Wagner Jr., 28, as the assailant.

Years later, the victim reported that Wagner and another man, 27-year-old Brent Getz, former chief of Weissport Police, raped her several times a week, starting when she was 4 years old.

At first, the victim only named Wagner in the assault, because she was told if she identified a second perpetrator, people would not have believed her.

In a written statement, she wrote, “Brent Getz told me not to tell anyone.”

It would not be until this year, after a Franklin Township police officer revisited the case, that Wagner and Getz would be taken into custody. They face a long list of charges, including but not limited to rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and aggravated indecent assault of a child.

That case is not the only yearslong alleged abuse scandal to recently come into public view.

A Schuylkill County man admitted in Carbon County court on Monday to sexually assaulting a young girl over two decades ago and is now facing a long state prison term.

David Hunsicker Jr., 53, of Frackville, pleaded guilty before Judge Steven R. Serfass to one count each of rape of a person under 13, and indecent assault of a person under 14.

Jim Thorpe police charged Hunsicker with repeatedly raping a child two decades ago. At the time, the victim was between 5-9 years old and a Jim Thorpe resident.

In April the victim came forward and told Jim Thorpe police that Hunsicker had raped her. She said the assaults took place in the attic, basement and storage area of the home.

In another case, 24-year-old Daniel David Miller Jr., of Lehighton, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting at least three young girls when they where 13, 14 and 15 years old.

And in March, an Aliquippa man named David Jones was charged by Lansford police in the 2008 rape of a 7-year-old girl. He had just been released from state prison after serving time for assaulting an 11-year-old that same year.

In Jones’ case, the youngest victim was not able to testify until 2018.

Investigating child sexual assault

Carbon County District Attorney Jean Engler said that often, child sex abuse cases are reported without any physical evidence or witnesses — other than the victim and the assailant.

Sometimes, Engler said, suspects will admit to the crime. But when they do not, it comes down to the case’s evidence and the victim’s willingness to testify. The prosecution will often accept a plea to a lesser charge to avoid having the child testify in court, she said.

Engler added that it is “nearly impossible” for the district attorney’s office to track how many child sex abuse cases end in charges being filed, because they come out of various police departments throughout the county. Sometimes, cases are filed in Carbon Court; other times, they are sent to another jurisdiction.

Lansford Chief of Police Jack Soberick said last year, his department received more than 50 child sexual or physical assault cases. And it is on track to meet or exceed that figure this year.

Every case, Soberick said, “presents a unique set of difficulties, circumstances and things that have to be done.” Time is one variable that determines the difficulty of investigating a sexual assault allegation, he said. How the case comes forward is another.

When children first disclose assault, the parent or guardian’s first reaction may be to try to gather information themselves. According to Soberick, that is a mistake, and can “inadvertently” and “unintentionally” taint the child’s testimony.

“Kids always want to answer to make you happy when they’re your child,” Soberick said. “So if you’re phrasing that question to them the wrong way, they’re going to answer it so you’re getting the response you want to hear.

“Listen if they speak. Do not attempt to elicit responses. Come to us first. We will coordinate everything that has to happen,” he said.