Secondary or Repeat Victimization

One of the things that you may have experienced as a Survivor is you may have been sexually abused more than one time but also by more than one offender a very uncomfortable fact both found in our experience and working with survivors as well as in research is that being sexually abused raises the risk factor of you being sexually abused again and and if you have suffered abuse by one or more perpetrators uh we all of us I am I'm sorry um and it may have caused you to feel or think that you did something wrong or that you are bringing this on yourself the exact reasons surrounding those perpetrators motivations um I may not know you may not know obviously that requires more in-depth investigation but I can tell you this uh access and opportunity are the key reasons most sex offenders uh sexually abuse so if those are the Dynamics that precipitated your sexual abuse that has a lot to do with it we can also we also know in the field that when their sexual abuse in a uh uh family or when there's sexual abuse in a small community let's say your neighborhood or on your team or in your classroom or what have you that that perpetrator has access to numerous children you may have fallen into that risk factor it may be a simple risk factor of lack of supervision by the adults in your home you know in and around you but it does not mean that you as a child victim did anything wrong it's more an issue evolving the perpetrator again and around surrounding their uh desire to access and identify uh different victims to sexual abuse but this is a very important topic for you to discuss uh with your so your support group as well as with any professional clinicians that are working with you uh moving forward.