Child sexual abuse is a form of maltreatment, violation, and exploitation where a minor becomes involved in sexual activity for the abuser's benefit. There's no consent, as minors cannot give it. In addition, Florida requires convicted sex offenders to register with the Sex Offender Registry, and their name stays in the public domain for life.
A Jacksonville child sexual abuse lawyer can help you file a lawsuit against the perpetrator if you or your child is a victim. In addition, your lawyer could pursue compensation for your medical expenses, mental torment, and other damages.
You Can Receive Compensation for the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse
The fallout from experiencing sexual abuse during a person's impressionable years has no bounds. Victims suffer untold grief as children and become adults with severe psychological and physical problems. A Jacksonville child sexual abuse lawyer can help you sue for the damages the abuse caused you or your loved one.
You could collect these monetary damages:
- The cost of past and ongoing mental health counseling and other therapy
- The emotional pain and suffering caused by the abuse
- Harm to friendships and family relationships
What types of traumas might you or your loved one experience from child sexual abuse? These are a few examples.
Distortion of Reality
This phenomenon happens because children can barely decipher what's happening, especially when the abuser routinely molests them. Victims may wallow in overthinking and face many unanswered questions, affecting how they understand the world. They may find solace in avoiding close relationships as they perceive adults as threats.
Mental Disorders
Mental health problems can affect anyone—even kids who have dreamy childhood experiences. Nevertheless, sexually abused children have an increased chance of anxiety, depression, and suicidal tendencies.
For example, dissociative disorder is when a person feels disconnected and lacks continuity of thoughts, actions, and sense of self. In doing so, the person loses awareness of their surroundings as an escape from the trauma within. Common signs of dissociative disorder include amnesia, feelings of detachment from daily life, and disparate personality states.
All these effects will require medical and psychological treatment, thus causing you to incur expensive medical bills. Your lawyer can claim these damages.
Interpersonal Dysfunction
This condition correlates with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and shares symptoms like difficulty trusting others, relationship conflicts, lingering fear of desertion, and patterns of withdrawal or overinvolvement.
Victims of childhood sexual abuse may experience these dysfunctions in various areas of life like school, work, and romantic relationships. For example, their inability to cope with professional stress can make it difficult to keep gainful employment, exposing them to financial ruin.
If the effects of sexual abuse make it difficult for you or a loved one to find or keep a job, your lawyer can seek damages for lost income and job opportunities.
Sexual Problems
Victims of childhood sexual abuse are prone to sex-related problems. For example, they may have a skewed association between sexual activity, pain, and violation. For this reason, they often engage in risky sexual behavior, like having too many partners and engaging in unprotected sex that exposes them to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
A lawyer can link these problems to the abuse and demand monetary compensation on your behalf. Victims often manage these issues through therapy and prescription medication.
Understanding Child Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse is a broad subject. However, legally speaking, it encompasses the following:
- Touching for sexual reasons
- Molestation
- Statutory rape
- Prostitution
- Incest
- Exposure (in the vicinity of children)
- Pornography
- Lewd activities in the presence of a child
Pedophilia is the clinical term for sexual attraction toward prepubertal children. Often, this propensity stems from a mental defect. These culprits exploit children to fulfill their perverted sexual needs, and the abuse can go undetected for years.
Sexual Abuse of Children With Disabilities
While sexual abuse can happen to any child, those living with disabilities are more vulnerable than other children. Perpetrators of child sexual abuse often target minors with intellectual or mental health challenges more frequently, perhaps because they cannot articulate what happened. Even when they're successful in reporting the abuse or someone detects something, they encounter many barriers to receiving customized treatment.
When caregivers cannot address the problem entirely, these children suffer a variety of aftereffects, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety. They may also be susceptible to victimization upon reaching adulthood, and this burden can hamper productivity and make life unbearable.
Our Jacksonville Child Sexual Abuse Lawyer Can Help
Dolman Law Group has a wealth of experience handling child sexual abuse. Therefore, we can help you pursue legal action against the suspect, so they don't harm your child or someone else anymore.
Our lawyers can intervene even when suspects are family members, teachers, or other people in your social circles. You can trust us to conduct a thorough investigation and utilize every tool at our disposal to resolve this matter and pursue the justice and compensation you deserve.
Call Us Today for Legal Responsive Counsel
Did your child report sexual abuse? Or did you experience sexual abuse and are ready to act against your abuser? Dolman Law Group can investigate your case and bring the perpetrator to justice. We empathize with victims of these heinous crimes and know how much emotional damage they can cause as the child develops into an adult.
When you hire our Jacksonville injury lawyers, we'll negotiate a settlement to cover the financial and emotional losses you've suffered. Contact us today for a free case review and more information.
Jacksonville Office
12574 Flagler Center Blvd.;
Suite 101
Jacksonville, FL 32258
Phone: (904) 441-6903