The Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise) takes stock of these sometimes invisible consequences based on the 16,414 testimonies received since the launch of its call for testimonies a year ago to the day.
The trauma suffered as a child still affects their health, physical and mental, as much as their family, sexual and professional life.
“What is obvious when reading the emails received is the expression of suffering, extreme and lasting suffering. It is not thinking of something painful that happened a long time ago, it is to experience it today”, explains to AFP judge Edouard Durand, co-president of the Ciivise.
Those who testify “almost always” evoke consequences “on their intimate life in adulthood, their couple, their life as parents, their sexuality”, notes the report.
Four out of ten women report pain, mainly vaginismus. Nearly one in three men suffer from erectile dysfunction.
Three out of ten victims mention an absence or drop in libido or an absence of sexual life. Conversely, sexual violence results in hypersexualization (multiplication of partners in particular) for half of the men.
“My sexuality has been a long desert crossing. I suffered from vaginismus for about twenty years,” said a woman quoted in the report.
– “Realistic and achievable” –
Many testimonies also evoke a refusal of motherhood and the fear of reproducing the aggressions on their own child.
This violence suffered as a child also has an impact on adult health: the vast majority have “developed risky behavior”.
Eating disorders, addictions, aggressiveness, suicide attempts are the most often reported. One in two women thus describes an eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, etc.). Four out of ten men have an addiction problem (alcoholism, drugs).
“By losing weight, I had the feeling of regaining control of my body and escaping my attacker”, confided a victim to the Ciivise. “I take alcohol or cannabis to numb myself, not for a recreational, euphoric high. It’s just so I can fall into a dreamless sleep, since dreams are basically nightmares,” says another.
La Ciivise lists five “realistic and achievable” recommendations that it calls on the public authorities to implement “urgently”, when the Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS) and the draft finance law (PLF).
It thus asks to guarantee and reimburse the victims for specialized care in psychotrauma, currently not very accessible and expensive. “I think I spent a car or two on my psych reconstruction,” says one account.
It asks to organize a “systematic identification” by professionals in contact with children (doctors, school nurses, etc.). And to create a “support and advice unit” to help them manage revelations, which can be a source of stress for them.
She claims more resources for the judicial police services specializing in cyber-pedocrime, while “grooming” (approaching a child on the internet to sexually assault him) has jumped. Finally, she recommends a “major national information campaign” on sexual violence against children, the last dating from 2002.
As an echo of the testimonies of the Ciivise, the actress Corinne Masiero evoked Monday on France Inter the consequences of the incest that she suffered: “There are two words that I hate, it’s love and family. Voluntarily , I didn’t want to have a kid because, at some point, the chain has to be broken”.
She will testify, with others, in the documentary “Incest, say it and hear it”, broadcast on the 26th on France 3. Special Envoy will also deal with incest in its Thursday edition.
