Study finds girls molest young boys

THE PRESS, NZ, By TIM HUME, July 1, 2004

Researchers into sexual abuse by girls say female sexual offending is chronically under-reported and specialised rehabilitation programmes are urgently needed.

Findings released yesterday from New Zealand's first study into adolescent female sexual offending reported a "culture of denial" about female sexual offending, which allowed adolescent female abusers to molest young, usually male, victims without repercussion.

If not rehabilitated, female abusers would most likely continue to offend and eventually pose a threat to their own children.

The survey of 400 health, mental health and related professionals identified eight young women in Christchurch currently aged between 12 and 19 who had sexually abused. It identified other female
abusers older than 19, who were excluded from the results.

Lead researcher Nikki Evans, from the University of Canterbury's social work department, said there was "an enormous amount of minimisation" surrounding sexual abuse by females, which meant it was usually not reported by victims, families or health professionals.

"People find it really difficult to perceive young women engaging in sexually abusive behaviours; it goes against the idea of women as nurturers," she said.

Research showed many people, including mental health professionals, perceived female sexual offending as not abusive or harmful.

"If a young girl abuses a 12-year-old boy it's seen as an initiation and a positive thing, rather than something traumatic," Evans said.

Researcher Don Mortensen, manager of the STOP Trust, which runs rehabilitation programmes for adult, adolescent and child sexual abusers, said society had been slow to acknowledge that sexual abuse by females was equally as destructive as that perpetrated by men.

STOP commissioned the research as a feasibility study into establishing the country's first rehabilitation programme for adolescent female abusers.

In nearly all of the eight Christchurch cases, the girls' victims were well known to them. Most were siblings or foster siblings. Peers at school and other neighbourhood children they were babysitting were also abused.

"They're abusing within the context of a relationship. We know that sort of abuse is the most difficult context (for the victim)," Evans said.

Their victims were always younger, and typically male. Three abused children aged between one and five years old.

The number of victims for each girl ranged between one and five, although Evans said the true numbers may be higher due to under-reporting.

The girls' average age was now 16 but several had been pre-teens when they started abusing.

None were reported to the youth justice system or referred to specialist treatment programmes.

"That suggests their offending was not prioritised, which reflects the general view in the community," Evans said.

There was a pressing need to treat adolescent female offenders because females who had been sexually abused were more likely to become teenage mothers, she said.

Holy Bible = Submit, Respect,

African Culture = Submit, Family Values, Traditions, Pride

American Culture = Divorce, Division, Slavery of Africans, Destroy African Culture

The choice is Yours.

 I choose Africa, Home of Great African Kings and Queens. Home of the First Man.

The red, black and green flag was created by the members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League at their convention held in Madison Square Garden on August 13, 1920.

The three colors represent:

• red: the noble blood that unites all people of African ancestry;
• black: black people whose dignity is upheld by the existence of the flag; and
• green: the abundant natural wealth of the Motherland, Africa.

The flag was created by the members of the UNIA in response to a racist song written in 1900 entitled "The Only Race without a Flag is the Coon"; the song was written by Will A. Heelan and J. Fred Helf and popular in the U.S. and Britain.

The flag later became a black nationalist symbol for the liberation African people everywhere. Its colors can be seen in the flags of a number of African nations.

"The RED, BLACK and GREEN Flag was unveiled to the world by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, of the World at its first international convention on August 13, 1920. The UNIA-ACL knew that Africans at home and abroad needed their own flag as other flags around the world could not represent the collective of African people.

The use of Red, Black and Green as colors symbolizing African nationhood was first "adopted by the UNIA-ACL as part of the 1920 Declaration of Rights as the official colors of the African race. The question of a flag for the race was not as trivial as might have appeared on the surface, for in the United States especially, the lack of an African symbol of nationhood seems to have been cause for crude derision on the part of whites and a source of sensitivity on the part of Afro-Americans. White derision over this deficiency was summed up in a popular American song, "Every Race Has a Flag But the 'Coon.'" A 1912 report apearing in the Africa Times and Orient Review (for which Marcus Garvey worked) doc*mented the far-reaching consequences of this song. In 1921 he declared,

"Show me the race or the nation without a flag, and I will show you a race of people without any pride. Aye! In song and mimicry they have said, "Every race has a flag but the coon." How true! Aye! But that was said of us four years ago. They can't say it now...." -Marcus Garvey

The race catechism Garveyites used explained the significance of the red, black, and green as for the "color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and liberty", black for "the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong," and green for "the luxuriant vegetation of our Motherland."3

A flag must represent the standard by which its people live. Thus, the Universal African Flag, the 52nd Article of the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World was ratified in convention.

There has been a great deal of talk and controversy over the origin, creation and use of the Red, Black and Green. The UNIA hopes that this controversy can be clarified once and for all.

There was no Red, Black and Green Flag prior to the coming of the Honorable Marcus Garvey and the founding of the UNIA. Today there are many African Nations that have adopted the colors Red, Black and Green after the great Marcus Garvey and his program of African Redemption. Any one claiming the creation of the Red, Black and Green is historically incorrect. The UNIA organization will make every attempt to clear up any misunderstandings about the matter concerning the Red, Black and Green. Further confusion can be misleading to the masses of Blacks throughout the country and the world.

The following paragraph is the official historical creation and usage of the Red, Black and Green:

Notice to the General Public: The UNIA in 1920 in international convention adopted the Red, Black and Green as its official colors and emblem of the Black people of the world. This flag has been flown upside down contrary to the intention of Marcus Garvey and the UNIA who gave it to the world. It is unlawful, disrespecful and traitorous for any individual or group to add any other colors to the Red, Black and Green for any other purpose. Individuals or groups doing so are not true nationalist, and should not be recognized as such.