Mrvan Leads Letter in Support Child Sexual Abuse Prevention

Washington, DC - Today, Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, announced his initiative to lead a letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, in support of child sexual abuse prevention research activities.

Specifically, 30 other Members of Congress joined Rep. Mrvan in expressing support for child sexual abuse prevention research activities under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in Fiscal Year 2023.  

On June 30, 2022, the House Appropriations Committee approved this Fiscal Year 2023 Appropriations Act, which included $3 million for these research activities, which is an increase of $1 million over the enacted Fiscal Year 2022 funding level.  The Committee report includes language that recognizes the severe and often life-long physical, cognitive and emotional impact of child sexual abuse, and notes that the CDC’s child sexual abuse prevention research includes opportunities to improve surveillance systems and data collection, and increase the understanding of risk and protective  factors, and develop and disseminate effective prevention efforts.  The measure is now submitted to the full House for consideration.

Congressman Mrvan stated, “Throughout my career, it has been a top priority of mine to protect the most vulnerable in our communities, including children impacted from sexual abuse.  I appreciate the collaboration from my colleagues and support from the members of the House Appropriations Committee.  I look forward to continuing to work with all of them and members of the Administration to ensure that all children can thrive in a safe and healthy environment.”

A video of the Congressman’s remarks on the House floor on this topic is available here.

The full text of the letter is available below and a pdf is available here:

Dear Chairwoman DeLauro and Ranking Member Cole:

We are writing to express our support for critically important child sexual abuse prevention research funding in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill.  Additionally, we are encouraged by and would like to thank you for your continued investment in protecting our vulnerable populations from sexual abuse.  As you consider priorities for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee, we urge you to appropriate $10 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control for child sexual abuse prevention research activities in Fiscal Year 2023.

The CDC estimates that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys will become victims of child sexual abuse, an adverse childhood experience that can impact how they think, feel, and act over their lifetime.  Child sexual abuse is associated with long-term physical and mental health issues.  A 2018 study estimated that the lifetime economic burden of CSA in the United States was at least $9.3 billion in 2015; however, because child sexual abuse is  underreported, this is likely an underestimate.  Additionally, another newly published study found that the United States spends approximately $5.4 billion each year to incarcerate people for sex crimes against children, including $508 million annually on federal prisoners in 2021.  In 2021, Congress appropriated $1.5 million for child sexual abuse prevention research.  That means for every federal dollar spent on research, the United States spent about $2982 on punishment.  Child sexual abuse is indisputably a criminal justice problem as well as a public health problem.  Despite the wide-ranging impact of child sexual abuse, there are currently very few scientifically validated prevention interventions.  In order to successfully combat child sexual abuse, additional resources to provide evidence-based, proactive intervention remain crucial.  Moreover, increased investment in prevention will help ensure the responsibility to stop or report abuse does not rest with children. In the absence of validated prevention efforts, organizations and individuals that work with children developed and implemented idiosyncratic and untested prevention efforts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also clarified just how vulnerable we are without effective prevention programming.  The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported a nearly 100% increase in online enticement reports and a 63% increase in CyberTipline reports between January and September 2020, compared to the same months in 2019.  Likewise, INTERPOL reported increased consumption of child sexual  exploitation and abuse materials among several member countries during the pandemic.  In addition to increased online offending, data from US and UK Stop It Now! helplines indicate a surge in requests for help by stepfathers with sexual thoughts about their stepdaughters.  These increases are likely due to steep pandemic related job losses and work-from-home/learn-from-home policies that leave at-risk men who were previously managing their urges with too much time, too much access to children, and too little structure.  We can anticipate that risk for online and intra-familial offending will remain high until pre-pandemic employment levels are regained, a process that could take years. 

In FY 2020, $1 million was allocated to the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention, which funded two grants to study perpetration prevention.  In FY 2021, the program received an increase to $1.5 million, and an increase to $2 million in FY 2022.  This early funding is much appreciated; however, achieving prevention at a large scale will require a significant increase in federal investment, not just incremental increases year over year.  We must take continued action to ensure the health and safety of children who remain at risk of experiencing sexual abuse.  While this issue is largely preventable, regrettably there are substantial gaps in proactively keeping children from harm.  A CDC report on the current state of child sexual abuse prevention outlined several serious but addressable gaps in existing research efforts, including: 

• Inadequate information on the scope of child sexual abuse victimization and perpetration. Prevalence estimates provide essential information about where, when, and whom prevention efforts should target, yet there are currently no high-quality perpetration prevalence estimates in the US or elsewhere.
• Incomplete understanding of factors that lead to child sexual abuse perpetration. Studies that follow large samples of at-risk individuals over time are needed to identify risk factors that promote offending, as well as protective factors that inhibit offending. 
• Absence of validated prevention strategies. There is an unmet need to develop, validate, and disseminate effective prevention programs and to ensure that evidence-based interventions make it into the hands of parents, educators, youth-serving organizations, and other stakeholders dedicated to keeping children safe from sexual abuse. 

To address these gaps and to keep children safe, we respectfully request that you include $10 million for research on the primary prevention of child sexual abuse at the CDC in FY 2023, which is vital to protecting children and their quality of life.

Thank you for your support of this initiative.

Sincerely,

Rep. Frank J. Mrvan

Rep. Alma S. Adams, Ph.D.

Rep. Karen Bass

Rep. Earl Blumenauer

Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester

Rep. Anthony G. Brown

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D.

Rep. G. K. Butterfield

Rep. André Carson

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II

Rep. Joe Courtney

Rep. Danny K. Davis

Rep. Anna G. Eshoo 

Rep. Al Green

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva

Rep. Josh Gottheimer

Rep. Jahana Hayes 

Rep. Steven Horsford

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

Rep. Pramila Jayapal

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney

Rep. Lucy McBath

Rep. Ann McLane Kuster

Rep. Jerrold Nadler

Rep. Jimmy Panetta

Rep. Bobby L. Rush

Rep. Terri A. Sewell

Rep. Abigail Davis Spanberger

Rep. Jackie Speier

Rep. Thomas R. Suozzi

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