Vicki Polin speaks at the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women (UN-CSW)

United Nations Presentation - Perspective: Survivors of Sex Crimes Being Revictimized

March  9, 2013

The following article is the first part of Vicki Polin's presentation at the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women that wasn't recorded.  

To watch the the rest of Vicki Polin's presentation that was recorded at the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women (UN-CSW) see below

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Perspective: Survivors of Sex Crimes Being Revictimized

By Vicki Polin

Examiner - March 26, 2013

Vicki Polin, MA, LCPC

In any community where people do not trust the outside world they become more vulnerable to predators from within their own communities. This is true for people of all faiths, especially those who live within more insulated communities, which includes those who come from a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim or Jewish faith based community.

Being a Jew, and after working within various movements within the Jewish faith for the last 14 years, I feel most comfortable speaking about the experiences of Jewish survivors of sex crimes.

To understand the responses of Jewish communities dealing with sexual abuse or assault, we all must be aware that for over 5700 years, the ugly face of anti-semitism has always shined brightly when it came to be known that a Jew committed a crime.

Needless to say for many Jews, there became a distrust of outsiders. From my own person observations I can say there seems to be more of a heightened fear of the non-Jewish world from those who survived the holocaust, including the following generations along with those who live within the more observant Jewish world.

Because of past experiences of anti-semitism and the fear of retaliation from the non-Jewish world -- the handling of allegations of cases of emotional, physical and sexual abuse have mostly been handled by members of the clergy and or various Jewish community leaders -- and NOT by secular law enforcement agencies.

Just like those from other faith based communities, these clergy members and community leaders had little if any training in forensics, let alone conducting victim sensitive interviewing. Needless to say, those who were victimized by sex crimes are being revicitimized and are still being shamed and blamed.

So the question has been asked, how can we prevent a survivor of emotional, physical or sexual abuse from being revictimized? The answer is not so simple. I personally believe it’s a societal problem.

As long as those in leadership positions blame those who have been victimized for the crimes committed against them, it will make it difficult for one to heal, let alone to hold their heads high and say “I survived”.

For those who were victimized as children, they often need to learn how to replace the tapes playing in their heads that they were “bad, dump, dirty little girls or boys”.

Adults who were abused as children often carry an array of symptomologys which can often lead them into patterns of being re-victimized.

It’s widely known in the trauma field that there’s a correlation between those who have been abused as children to those develop such things as low self-esteem, post-traumatic stress disorders, depression, eating disorders, various types addictions, and a whole array of other mental health issues.

When someone has been traumatized, the first 24 - 72 hours are critical for the survivor to share with other’s what happened to them.

If someone was robbed on the street, they would share their story. Would not get blamed.

The truth is, that I am a survivor of child abuse and have been revictimized as an adult. For me, with hindsight I know the answer to why these things happened. Even though my gut was warning me something was wrong, I didn’t pay attention. I rationalized away that ah oh feeling. This is something everyone does, even those who were not abused as children -- but to a lessor degree.

Though we all wish that we could control the universe and never be victimized again, the truth is we can not. But what we can do is to learn how to identify and process our thoughts and feelings, without blaming ourselves if we do get revictimized and to ask for help as often as we want or need to.

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Panel members from the workshop at the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women, included
Natsuko Utsumi, Gabriela Nava Campos, Vicki Polin, Jan Kraft, Judy Meikle and Dana Raphael, PhD

FREE WORKSHOP in NYC: Don’t Remain a Victim! You Can Avoid a Lifetime of Abuse

 
FREE Workshop

  
Conference on the Status of Women  - Sponsored by the United Nations

Don’t Remain a Victim!  

You Can Avoid a Lifetime of Abuse

 

Saturday March 9, 2013

12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

8th floor Boss Room

The Church Center

777 UN Plaza (E. 44th St. & First Ave.)

New York, NY

Session Organizer:  Dana Raphael, Ph.D.

203-259-5995 

This Workshop is open to both Men and Women  

People who have experienced physical and mental trauma are more likely to be revictimized throughout life.  Join us for a panel discussion on how the pattern of abuse can be broken, and repeated harm avoided.


Come, sit awhile, and share your burdens . . .


SPEAKERS & THEIR TOPICS
 

• Natsuko Utsumi, founder of the nonprofit, Cause Vision, will address "Prevention of Revictimization Through Exposing Human Trafficking.”
• Judy Meikle, a Quaker and a facilitator of the Alternatives to Violence Project, will speak on “Prison Revictimization from an Abolitionist Perspective.” 
• Vicki Polin, founder and CEO of The Awareness Center, will talk about the issues facing Jewish survivors of sexual assault and the effects of war atrocities into the second generation.
• Dana Raphael, Director of The Human Lactation Center, Ltd., will speak on “The Urban Myths That Hurt Everyone.”
• Gabriela Nava Campos, a specialist in public policy and research, will address “best practices” that organizations can use in order to help victims of human trafficking.
• Janet Kraft will present “Resources for Recovery,” written by Randy and Pamela Noblitt, co-authors of Ritual Abuse and Torture in the 21st Century.

WORKSHOP IN NYC: "Don't Remain a Victim: You Can Avoid a Lifetime of Abuse"

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR MARCH 9, 2013! 

The Human Lactation Center's panel discussion "Don't Remain a Victim: You Can Avoid a Lifetime of Abuse" will be presented at the Committee on the Status of Women conference on Saturday, March 9, 2013 from 12:30 to 2:00 in the Boss Room (8th floor) at the Church Center, 777 First Avenue at 44th St., New York City (across the street from the UN).

The session is free and open to the public.  You are welcome to come and bring friends!

Best regards,

Dana Raphael, Ph.D.
Director
The Human Lactation Center, Ltd.
Westport, CT 06880

 
Don't Remain a Victim: You Can Avoid a Lifetime of Abuse.

When: Saturday March 9, 2013

            12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Where:  Church Center

              Boss Room (8th Floor)

              777 First Avenue

              New York City, NY

Women victimized as children are more vulnerable to revictimization throughout their lifetime.  Studies reveal that women serving in the U.S. military who report sexual assault tend to have been sexually abused previously, and women helped in rape crisis centers often have been subject to domestic violence or childhood sexual abuse.  Likewise, these child victims are vulnerable to a host of predators and are in danger of suffering a lifetime of abuse.  This session discusses various kinds of systemic, institutionalized victimization.  We describe how this occurs, an d how to identify and overcome patterns of harm.
 

SPEAKERS & THEIR TALK TOPICS
 

Pamela Perskin Noblitt, co-author of Ritual Abuse and Torture in the 21st Century.  Ms. Noblitt cannot be with us in March, but she is submitting a paper entitled, "Resources for Recovery," which will be presented by Jan Kraft. 

Natsuko Utsumi, founder of the nonprofit, Cause Vision, will speak on  "Prevention of revictimization through exposing human trafficking."  The education of young girls is essential to prevent human tragedy.  Ms. Utsumi will describe the comic educational booklet she designed and is distributing to young girls throughout the public school system in Mexico.  She is also now working on vulnerable areas in Vietnam.

She will introduce Gabriela Nava Campos, a fellow graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government who works directly with victims of human trafficking.  Ms. Campos will address revictimization in the context of human trafficking and suggest what she has found to be the „best practices‰ that other organizations can use in order to help victim survivors, such as understanding the reality of trafficking and how it can increase vulnerability to re-victimization.  She will talk about her experiences in this area and offer suggestion to other agensies and organizations dealing with victims.


Judy Meikle, a Quaker and a facilitator of the Alternatives to Violence Project, will speak on "Prison Revictimization from an Abolitionist Perspective."  When people become the victim of a crime, American society primarily responds through the criminal justice system. This system is biased and punishing and as we know occurs with greater impact on persons in low income communites and people of color.   Within this system, there is very little successful rehabilitation. The Alternatives to Violence Project holds workshops inside maximum security prisons.  Judy Melkle will discuss her experience of dealing with the criminal justice system and explain her aboli tionist perspective for reducing revictimization.

 
Vicki Polin is the founder and CEO of The Awareness Center, (which is the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/assault, an organization dedicated to ending sex crimes in Jewish communities globally.  She has worked as an advocacy for survivors of for decades and brings extensive knowledge of the impact of war atrocities on second generation family members, including the children of those who were Holocaust survivors and children of the Nazi jailors.

Dana Raphael, Director of The Human Lactation Center, Ltd., will speak on "The Urban Myths That Hurt Everyone."  She postuates that the sixties and seventies were a time for Scapegoating, with lies and extraordinary tales.  Ignoring history and good common sense, accusations were made against people throughout the country.  Confronted by the Vietnam war, newsworthy and famous persons were singled out.  Oppenheimer was shunned for his role in the development of the atom bomb.  Hollywood became rife with communists.  Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon (just recently honored by receiving a seat in the National Academy of Sciences), was accused of deliberately giving measles to the Yanamamo leading to their death, and it took decades to wipe out the insult.  Margaret Mead was vilifed by a wild Australian who claimed her informants lied to her, thus making all her major contributions invalid.

I too was caught in the development of the Urban Myths of that period -- I, who started the anti-formula controversy, learned to regret it.  The AAA had proposed to tell the World Health Organization of any infringement on their edict to tattle on milk companies if they gave mothers a sample of their product.  I changed my opinion and was victimized, called a „multinational lover‰ and worse by a Harvard professor for speaking against this proposal.  Only after I had visited 11 different areas where we had anthropologists exploring infant feeding practices did I finally understand that it was the lack of sufficent weaning food that was killing babies, not the few samples given away at the hospital.   „Nestles kills babies‰ became the Urban Legend of that era.  So, this is a warning: Urban Myths are contagious and must be questioned, else they become fact.