Interesting. From my point of view, the age does make a difference. Adolescence is a time of exponential development. Cognitively and sexually. Now people may have upped the age because she was 13 and 11mos at the time. But say, for instance, she was 13yrs and 1 month vs. 14 yrs and 11mos. That would be almost two yrs difference. Basically a 13 y.o. vs. a 15 y.o. The developmental stage between those two ages is quite pronounced. This may be splitting hairs to some but it is a very important detail.
All cases of abuse that involve children that are reported during treatment have to be reported to the authorities. It varies from state to state who are considered "mandatory reporters" and some states consider all citizens to be mandatory reporters and can face criminal prosecution if found they have not reported.
Many, many children to do not disclose abuse until many years later and some never really do (I recall from an earlier poster that it took many years for Sutton's victim to disclose her abuse). As I mentioned in a previous post 90% of victims are abused by someone they trust and often love so their is often a lot of confusion about what to do or depending on age if it's "really" wrong. Most children take years to figure that out and if/when they disclose it is usually in the teen years when they kinda "figured it out". It's more complicated if it's a parent/relative that they live with.
And I made the same point about the boy aspect. I agree. And if that were the case this would likely have been a one page thread full of "Oh, my God!", etc.
Edit: Adults who report abuse as a child generally do not report to the authorities as most states have a statute of limitations and most adults feel that there is no point to filing criminal charges as these cases are hard to prosecute years later. He said/she said. Although in the wake of Penn State some states are considering doing away with the statute of limitations but again very difficult for a single victim to see any good outcome from reporting past abuse to the authorities.
All cases of abuse that involve children that are reported during treatment have to be reported to the authorities. It varies from state to state who are considered "mandatory reporters" and some states consider all citizens to be mandatory reporters and can face criminal prosecution if found they have not reported.
Many, many children to do not disclose abuse until many years later and some never really do (I recall from an earlier poster that it took many years for Sutton's victim to disclose her abuse). As I mentioned in a previous post 90% of victims are abused by someone they trust and often love so their is often a lot of confusion about what to do or depending on age if it's "really" wrong. Most children take years to figure that out and if/when they disclose it is usually in the teen years when they kinda "figured it out". It's more complicated if it's a parent/relative that they live with.
And I made the same point about the boy aspect. I agree. And if that were the case this would likely have been a one page thread full of "Oh, my God!", etc.
Edit: Adults who report abuse as a child generally do not report to the authorities as most states have a statute of limitations and most adults feel that there is no point to filing criminal charges as these cases are hard to prosecute years later. He said/she said. Although in the wake of Penn State some states are considering doing away with the statute of limitations but again very difficult for a single victim to see any good outcome from reporting past abuse to the authorities.