SPOTLIGHT won the Best Picture Academy award 2016.

SPOTLIGHT chronicles the riveting true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that rocked the city and caused a crisis in one of the world's oldest and most trusted institutions. When the newspaper's tenacious "Spotlight" team of reporters delved into allegations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovered a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston's religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world.

While the story of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church needed to be told, the most egregious sexual child abuse continues behind closed doors in the family structure and from which children have little hope of escape.

Although professionals are mandated to report suspected sexual abuse, the majority of professionals are uneducated on the subtle signs of sexual child abuse. Thus, the child is labeled with a diagnosis that blames him/her for his/her behaviors and symptoms. Such as Rebellious, Defiant, ADD, ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, Bedwetting, Thus, further traumatizing the child.

What to do? Education on the subtle and often overlooked sexual abuse signs, as well as focusing on treating the mental, emotional, physical, spiritual trauma, versus treating symptoms.

Adhering to the definition of Sexual Child Abuse, sexual abuse can be as subtle and insidious as:

o allowing the child to see pornographic pictures or movies or including the child with him/her as if the adult and child are peers

o a father rubbing cold water on his daughter's chest--ostensibly to make her breasts grow

o a parent insisting a daughter do certain exercises to make her breast grow or grow bigger

o making jokes about a girl's flat chest--i.e. two fried eggs, etc.

o giving a girl a T-shirt with two fried eggs in the strategic area of her breasts

o pulling a child's bathing suit bottom down--the perpetrator usually laughs--causing humiliation

o a game of swimming pool tag--the person who gets 'tagged' gets his/her bathing suit pulled down, invariably a child is the only one who gets tagged and laughed at

o a man hugging a child while pressing his hard penis against her

o a man giving a child a 'wet' kiss on the lips

o a family member putting his tongue on a child's lips or into her mouth--ostensibly the 'family/friend' kiss--the child doesn't like this type kiss, but has no recourse since the child believes this is a family practice

o anyone, who has sexual intent invading a child's privacy, such as entering the bathroom or bedroom without knocking, catching her unaware and indisposed

o anyone 'playfully' pulling his/her swimsuit bottom down or pulling her panties down without implied permission or permission

o bathing a child when the child is old enough to bathe him/herself

o any person touching or caressing the child in ways that are sexual

o a man holding a child on his lap while he has an erection

o a person who stares (ogles) at or makes provocative sexual comments about the child's body

o anyone kissing the child in a way that is sexual for the giver

o seemingly innocuous touching, wrestling, tickling or playing, which has sexual overtones or meaning for the other person

o touching a boy's penis with sexual overtone or meaning, while changing his diaper or bathing/drying him

o smacking or hitting a boy's penis if he has an erection--generally done to boys age 2 to 5

o playing 'red light/green light' - If I touched you here (the person touches an erogenous area) would you say "Red light or Green Light? No matter the answer the person has transgressed a boundary and the child has experienced inappropriate touch, and therefore, has been abused

o any adult asking/instructing a child to touch him/her in his/her erogenous or genital area

o copping a feel in the child's erogenous or genital area

o a man touching/patting a child's leg with sexual intent or meaning while driving

o a man with sexual intent or meaning while seemingly unintentionally touching a child's chest/or breast

Women know how unnerving and icky it feels when a person ogles, touches, cops a feel or makes inappropriate or unwanted sexual comments. Can you imagine how a child feels? While the child doesn't know the intent or ramifications, the child feels the person's sexual energy and doesn't know what is transpiring, therefore, a copped feel, ogling or sexual comments are more profound for a child than an adult. Source:

While talk shows and news reports beat the drums that sexual abuse survivors will suffer endlessly, recovery is possible. Sexual Abuse Recovery

Author's Bio: 

About Dr. Dorothy:

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, Ph.D., Metaphysician, Certified Hypnosis Practitioner, author, "If I'd Only Known...Sexual Abuse In Or Out Of The Family: A Guide To Prevention, (order at ) specializes in sexual abuse, incest, and physical abuse recovery. She is a speaker and trainer on a variety of issues, Lifetime member, Who's Who in American Women, 2000 Edition.