How do i know if my child has been sexually abused

About the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline

Need help?

Call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.

How does it work?

When you call 800.656.HOPE (4673), you’ll be routed to a local RAINN affiliate organization based on the first six digits of your phone number. Cell phone callers have the option to enter the ZIP code of their current location to more accurately locate the nearest sexual assault service provider.

Telephone Hotline Terms of Service

How can the hotline help me?

Calling the National Sexual Assault Hotline gives you access to a range of free services including:

Confidential support from a trained staff member
Support finding a local health facility that is trained to care for survivors of sexual assault and offers services like sexual assault forensic exams
Someone to help you talk through what happened
Local resources that can assist with your next steps toward healing and recovery
Referrals for long term support in your area
Information about the laws in your community
Basic information about medical concerns

Is it confidential?

The National Sexual Assault Hotline is a safe, confidential service. When you call the hotline, only the first six numbers of the phone number are used to route the call, and your complete phone number is never stored in our system. Most states do have laws that require local staff to contact authorities in certain situations, like if there is a child or vulnerable adult who is in danger.

While almost all callers are connected directly to a staff member or volunteer at a local sexual assault service provider, a handful of providers use an answering service after daytime business hours. This service helps manage the flow of calls. If all staff members are busy, you may choose to leave a phone number with the answering service. In this case, the number will be confidential and will be given directly to the organization’s staff member for a callback. If you reach an answering service, you can try calling back after some time has passed, or you can choose to call during regular business hours when more staff members are available. You can also access 24/7 help online by visiting online. rainn.org.

Who are the sexual assault service providers?

Sexual assault service providers are organizations or agencies dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual assault. The providers who answer calls placed to the hotline are known as RAINN affiliates. To be part of the National Sexual Assault Hotline, affiliates must agree to uphold RAINN’s confidentiality standards. That means:

Never releasing records or information about the call without the consent of the caller, except when obligated by law
Only making reports to the police or other agencies when the caller consents, unless obligated by law
Agreeing to RAINN’s non-discrimination policy

To learn more about how a provider can become an affiliate of the National Sexual Assault Hotline, visit the Sexual Assault Service Provider information page. Volunteer opportunities for the National Sexual Assault Hotline are coordinated through these local providers. Search for volunteer opportunities near you.

How was the National Sexual Assault Hotline created?

The National Sexual Assault Hotline was the nation’s first decentralized hotline, connecting those in need with help in their local communities. It’s made up of a network of independent sexual assault service providers, vetted by RAINN, who answer calls to a single, nationwide hotline number. Since it was first created in 1994, the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE and online.rainn.org) has helped more than 3 million people affected by sexual violence.

Before the telephone hotline was created, there was no central place where survivors could get help. Local sexual assault services providers were well equipped to handle support services, but the lack of a national hotline meant the issue did not receive as much attention as it should. In response, RAINN developed a unique national hotline system to combine all the advantages of a national organization with all the abilities and expertise of local programs. One nationwide hotline number makes it easier for survivors to be connected with the help they deserve.

Anyone affected by sexual assault, whether it happened to you or someone you care about, can find support on the National Sexual Assault Hotline. You can also visit online.rainn.org to receive support via confidential online chat.

Types of Sexual Violence | RAINN

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Sexual assault can take many different forms and be defined in different ways, but one thing remains the same: it’s never the victim’s fault.

When a perpetrator intentionally harms a minor physically, psychologically, sexually, or by acts of neglect, the crime is known as child abuse.

Men and boys who have been sexually assaulted or abused may also face some additional challenges because of social attitudes and stereotypes about men and masculinity.

A perpetrator can have any relationship to a victim, and that includes the role of an intimate partner.

Regardless of how the law defines incest, unwanted sexual contact from a family member can have a lasting effect on the survivor.

In cases of drug-facilitated sexual assault, survivors often blame themselves. Remember—you are not to blame. You are the only one allowed to make choices for your body. Using drugs or alcohol is never an excuse for assault and does not mean that it was your fault.

Sexual Harassment - You should be able to feel comfortable in your place of work or learning. If you are being sexually harassed, you can report it to the authorities at your job, school, or local law enforcement.
Stalking - Learn more about stalking behaviors to help you notice them before they escalate—and take steps to protect yourself.
Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse - Many perpetrators of sexual abuse are in a position of trust or responsible for the child’s care, such as a family member, teacher, clergy member, coach, or other children such as older siblings.
Using Technology to Hurt Others - Some people use technology, such as digital photos, videos, apps, and social media, to engage in harassing, unsolicited, or non-consensual sexual interactions.
Sexual Abuse by Medical Professionals - When you go to the doctor, dentist, hospital or physical therapist, or see other medical professionals, you trust them to treat you with respect as they care for your health.
Sexual Exploitation by Helping Professionals - Sexual exploitation by a helping professional is a serious violation of your trust and, in many cases, the law.

Multiple-Perpetrator Sexual Assault - Multiple-perpetrator sexual assault, sometimes called gang rape, occurs when two or more perpetrators act together to sexually assault the same victim.
Elder Abuse - As the number of older adults in America increases, it will become all the more important to be aware of the warning signs of elder abuse.
Sexual Abuse of People with Disabilities - Consent is crucial when any person engages in sexual activity, but it plays an even bigger, and more complicated role when someone has a disability.
Prisoner Rape - If you’re an inmate, a former inmate, or know an inmate who survived sexual assault while in prison, there are resources available to you.
Military Sexual Trauma - Military Sexual Trauma, or MST, is the term used by the Department of Veteran Affairs to describe the effects of sexual violence experienced by a military Service member.
Legal Role of Consent - The legal definitions for terms like rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse vary from state to state. Consent often plays an important role in determining whether an act is legally considered a crime.

RAINN has given me the courage and strength to stand up for what is right. Julianna, survivor

Free.

88¢ of every $1 goes to helping survivors and preventing sexual violence.

Trial Balloons? Small Signs of a Big Problem: A Qualitative Study of Circumstances Helping Parents Recognize Early Signs of Child Sexual Abuse [Study Summary] | ChildHub

In cases of sexual abuse, it is often difficult for children to tell anyone about the abuse. However, studies based on parents' recollections of their children's experiences of sexual abuse during therapy sessions confirm that children often give non-verbal signals, however small or indirect, that they have been abused. It is up to the parent/guardian's response to these signs whether or not the child will come forward about being a victim of abuse. This suggests that parents and professionals need to understand the importance of dialogue when a child begins to talk about sexual abuse, as well as respond to potential signs that provide an opportunity to receive this information.

One of the reasons children find it difficult to talk about sexual abuse is that often the perpetrators are family members or are trusted by their parents. In addition, children often feel responsible or complicit in cases of sexual abuse and fear the consequences of disclosure. In general, children are very responsive to the demands of the adults around them when deciding whether and when to speak about their abuse. Therefore, children may give indirect signs or "trial balloons" to adults they trust about their abuse and then, based on the response they receive, decide to report (or not report) that they have been abused.

In the 20 cases reviewed in this study, all of the children involved gave signs or "trial balloons" to parents or guardians that were usually indirect and difficult to immediately recognize as signs of abuse. Often these could be questions about rules or obligations, for example, if the child asked whether it was necessary for him to stay with a family member or trusted friend who was bullying him, and expressed concern about the circumstances in which he was abused, for example, being alone with the offender. In several of these cases, the adult interviewed ignored these signals, comforting the child or pointing out the need to follow rules and fulfill obligations. In these cases, the child stopped giving out information and at that time did not report the abuse. Conversely, if adults responded to these cues with open responses that encouraged further dialogue (for example, when a parent asked why the child was worried or afraid), in the subsequent conversation, the children reported that they had been abused. In some cases, the child spoke directly about the abuse, but only in cases where the health problems associated with sexual abuse or the phenomenon of sexual abuse itself were mentioned (for example, while watching a television program about sexual abuse of children).

These findings suggest that parents and professionals need to be aware of the ways a child can use to test whether an adult is responding to their concerns about abuse, and should also pay attention to the role of dialogue that can help the child talk about sexual abuse.

Prepared by Katarina Obermeier for the Child Protection Platform in South East Europe in 2015

Lost childhood. How a Child Sexual Abuse Investigation Can Turn into Torture

Elena Dogadina and Nina Nazarova
Kazan

December 24, 2019

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Sexual abuse of children is a crime that the Russian authorities always talk about zero tolerance for. However, the very investigation of such cases can be carried out in such a way that instead of obtaining justice, it will turn into torture for the child and all families.

In accordance with Article 41 of the Law of the Russian Federation "On Mass Media", the names of all the characters have been changed.

Irina Petrova, a resident of Kazan, hesitated for more than six months to tell the police that her adopted daughter Arina had suffered from sexual violence several years ago. "As an ordinary person, I was scared if there would be more harm or benefit from this. I understood that the girl would simply be dragged." Irina consulted with psychologists with experience in working with child victims of violence, and the woman was explained that there was no need to worry: the girl would be interrogated once and she also went for two examinations, forensic and psychological-psychiatric, and "they won't touch everything" . Immediately after the investigative actions, psychologists planned to begin the rehabilitation of the child.

The woman went to the Investigative Committee with the hope that this would be the case. However, over the past year, 12-year-old Arina had to endure a series of interrogations, three identifications, two confrontations, a trip to the scene, one forensic and five psychological and psychiatric examinations. In the summer, a girl from psychological exhaustion ended up in a neurological hospital. Investigations are still ongoing.

"Bad things"

On June 13, 2018, Irina, a teacher in a Kazan school, received a call from the police. They were looking for a student: the girl's mother was hit by a car to death.

"I immediately realized that Arina [would be] alone. Her mother always said, 'I don't have anyone, I'm raising her alone,'" recalls Irina. days in the village with her grandparents, where the woman found out that Arina actually had enough relatives, including her own father, whom the girl, however, had not seen since she was three years old and who did not want to take her daughter into a new family. Irina stayed in touch with the child - she visited once a week and often called up, even gave advice on getting closer to her grandparents, with whom Arina had seen several times in her life before and could not make contact. Once Arina mentioned that she would not against returning to my second cousin, where she and her mother lived for some time, but it’s scary that “uncles will do bad things to her again. ”

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Irina immediately called her own father. "Yes, I know, she told me," he replied. In addition to her father, the girl managed to tell her grandmother, grandfather and aunt about the violence she experienced. "What could I do, stranger, at this moment?" - the woman now recalls discouraged.

When, a couple of months later, her father sent Arina to an orphanage, Irina went to consult the director. It turned out that they already know about violence there - the girl told one of the teachers about it after a moral education lesson. According to Petrova, the shelter promised to take action. However, this did not happen: Arina was offered to write down in detail what exactly happened to her and when, and two months later, in November 2018, the explanatory note of the girl was burned in the bathhouse of the institution.

Irina Petrova and her husband made the decision to take Arina into the family almost as soon as the girl got to the shelter. In the fall of 2018, they completed the paperwork. “At the foster parent’s school, we were told that if a parent knows that there were some facts [of violence] and hides it, he becomes an accomplice,” Irina recalls. Information on how to recognize that a child may have been a victim of sexual abuse in the past and what to do if this happens is a mandatory part of the training, as orphans and children from disadvantaged backgrounds are often at risk. “We explain that you must report to the investigative committee, otherwise you will be held criminally liable,” says Svetlana Elakova, head of the regional public organization of foster families in Tatarstan. “But Irina is very disciplined.”

"Forget about this uncle"

"My favorite subject at school is technology. My least favorite subject is math and English. I go to an art class. In the future I want to work as a nurse," Arina said during her first interrogation in the investigative department in the Privolzhsky district of Kazan in February 2019.

The period of initiation of criminal proceedings and interrogation is the most difficult, when the greatest support is needed for the child and family. “The very situation of being interrogated and told about what happened can cause additional trauma,” explains Moscow psychologist Anna Solovieva; over the past twenty years, she has accompanied children in more than a hundred criminal cases of sexual abuse. It is often very difficult to remember and tell an injured child - due to age, mental disorders, or simply the experience is so traumatic that information is repressed. In order to make the process of investigating such cases as less traumatic as possible, a few years ago several Russian public organizations—in particular, Resistance and Doctors for Children—worked with experts and the Investigative Committee to achieve amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure. The guidelines issued in 2014 by the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee for St. Petersburg declare that the principle of "child-friendly justice" should be the basis of investigative actions.

The participation of a psychologist became obligatory in all investigative actions with a child, Solovieva explains (before, it was customary to invite school teachers). The task of the psychologist is to establish contact with the child, help create an atmosphere of safety for him, prepare him by saying what he is about to do, and monitor his emotional reaction during the interrogation - if it is strong, stop the interrogation, give him an opportunity to calm down.

The first investigator - they changed several times in Arina's case - did not dare to ask questions himself. “He gave me questions on a piece of paper:“ Talk about it, please, ”says Evgenia Vasilyeva, one of the psychologists who accompanied Arina at the investigative measures. “ I say, in the sense? He: "Well, I don't know how to ask her."

The psychologist should also help the child formulate what exactly happened to him. “For example, she said:“ He gave me a massage, ”says Evgenia. “We asked what massage is.“ He said that it was a massage, but I know that this is not a massage, my mother and grandmother did me, and massage when Arina was in the shelter, she was examined by a gynecologist, and the girl remembered the doctor’s words: “You’re all right, you didn’t suffer, forget about this uncle, he just played with you.” “We procrastinated for about ten minutes , because they could not understand what "played around" means, - Evgenia explains, - And how did you play? Playing with toys."

Statistically more often children become victims not of rape, but of violent acts of a sexual nature - this may be forced oral sex, unwanted touching, masturbation in the presence of a child. All these actions very often do not leave physical traces, explains Anna Solovieva: "It turns out that the child's testimony is one of the main evidence on which everything is built. " Accordingly, the interrogation of the child must be carried out in such a way as to obtain maximum information for the investigator, which can then be verified and which, if confirmed, will form the basis of the charge.

"In order to prevent the aggravation of the mental trauma of the victim, one should strive to ensure that the interrogation of the child was a single one," recommends the manual of the Investigative Committee. Moscow psychologist Anna Solovieva clarifies that this, in principle, applies to all investigative actions involving a child, there should be a minimum of them: a second interrogation is possible only if there are newly discovered circumstances.

Both the training manual of the Investigative Committee and psychologists point out that the video recording of the interrogation plays a huge role. In addition to fixing not only what the child says, but also how he says it, video recording allows you to really interrogate the child only once and then analyze the video as needed, including already in court - and not bring the child there so that he does not talk about about what happened to him, again, in the presence of many strangers. At the same time, interrogation under video is more complicated than usual: the investigator needs to organize and prepare everything in such a way as to meet the required time - according to the law, the interrogation of a child under 14 cannot last more than two hours a day and no more than an hour in a row.

In recent years, Anna Solovieva's practice has mainly come across investigators who understand why new methods of interrogating minors are needed, and they adhere to them. “Before this was introduced, there were cases when a child was interrogated almost eight times,” recalls a Moscow psychologist. “This is a complete disgrace, this should not be.”

Ordinary ordinary family

On the day of the first interrogation, Irina Petrova and Arina spent more than seven hours in the investigation department for the Privolzhsky district of Kazan. The interrogation protocol says that there was no video recording.

The girl told about several episodes involving four men. She calls them all "uncles", they are all related to each other. Almost all cases occurred in the same place - the apartment of a second cousin's aunt, where she and her mother lived for some time and where they later brought the child to visit.

Arina remembers her second cousin and her husband only with good words. During interrogation, she said that the man replaced her dad, and their children became her brother and sister. Now the woman believes that her niece invented all the stories about violence at the prompt of her adoptive mother.

The girl's birth mother worked as a nurse in two shifts and raised her daughter alone. “I always knew that it was hard for her, and that the financial condition of the family was not very prosperous - the girl was given free food,” recalls Irina Petrova. “But she actively participated in the girl’s life, she could take part in class events. An ordinary ordinary family.” When Arina's performance suddenly dropped sharply in the fourth grade, the teacher began to find out what was the matter, and it turned out that mother and daughter had nowhere to live for some time - it was then that they were sheltered by a relative with a three-room apartment.

There were often guests in the house. The story about one of the episodes of violence the girl begins with the words "everyone, except the children, were drunk."

Arina and her cousin repeatedly witnessed adults having sex in front of them. One of the suspected men during the interrogation said: “When we entered into intimacy with [...], Arina woke up and asked: “What are you doing?”, while speaking as if reproachfully.”

"I didn't leave school alone"

The earliest episode of sexual assault occurred when Arina was six years old, the last - at ten.

After the interrogation on the first day, the investigator immediately offered to stay for identification. Then they brought "Uncle Edik", T., a police driver of the National Guard, born in 1971. According to Arina, once, when she was seven years old, "Uncle Edik" lay down on her bed, "after which he immediately began to crawl with his hand, in my opinion, right, into my panties and touch it in" that place ". "He was drunk, because he smelled of alcohol," the girl specified during interrogation.0003

When Arina heard that she would have to meet the suspected man again, she began to panic. “She was very much afraid that he would see her, but she does not understand that from the other side [the room for identification] is not visible,” recalls Irina Petrova.

A day or two later, the family was again asked to come for identification. This time the investigators detained "Uncle Sasha", an electrician born in 1988.

Arina said that one day she and her mother and her partner were walking around the city and met "Uncle Sasha". The adults sat down on a bench to drink beer. When they finished, they were no longer allowed into the hostel, where they then rented a room with their mother, so everyone went to spend the night with "uncle". In the apartment, Arina immediately went to bed, and the adults remained in the kitchen.

At night the girl woke up because "it hurt downstairs". “I wanted to run away right away, but he held my hands with his legs, my hands were “at the seams,” she said during interrogation. “I couldn’t scream either, because Uncle Sasha closed my mouth and held my neck.”

The girl claims that the next morning the man picked her up, carried her to the balcony and threatened that if she told anyone about what had happened, he would kill her mother.

There was an excess at the identification: the officers of the investigatory committee overlooked, and the man accidentally managed to get into the room where Arin was waiting with his foster mother and psychologists. The girl went into hysterics. As psychologist Yevgenia Vasilyeva recalls, the girl dived towards her with lightning speed, and she covered her with a fur coat. “I see that her mouth is moving, but there is no sound,” the psychologist describes the shock of the child.

Both men completely deny their guilt and call the girl a "dreamer". Both remained at large during the investigation: the Privolzhsky District Court of Kazan refused to place the men in a pre-trial detention center or under house arrest, limiting themselves to a written undertaking not to leave. According to Irina Petrova, as T. was being restrained, his colleagues, employees of the National Guard, in uniform came to the court to support him.

When Arina found out that both men had been released after contacting the police, she was very frightened, recalls Petrova: “She didn’t leave the school alone, or she was waiting for me, or other children. All the time she asked:“ What about you? for me, for my husband, for everyone."

"In any case, there will be hysteria"

Under Russian law, the state does not provide a free lawyer to victims. “I was sure that I didn’t need a lawyer. Why do I need a lawyer if I am the injured party, and I know that the child actually suffered it all?” Petrova recalls. “And only when I saw that each suspect had two lawyers , and so they began to bring the girl, I realized, yes, we also need a lawyer.

At school, Irina Petrova, a teacher of the highest category, earns 30 thousand. Of these, a lawyer has to pay twenty-five per month. “I can use this money to hire tutors in all subjects, cool circles, spend this money on children,” the woman complains. “Why can’t the state protect the child? Why can’t they provide us with a lawyer?”

The investigators insisted on the need for face-to-face confrontations - now Irina Petrova explains that they did not even know that, according to the law, they could be refused. At a confrontation, the victim must repeat all his testimony in the presence of the suspect. The suspect is then asked if he agrees with them, and then he and the lawyers can ask questions. According to the girl’s lawyer Rinat Kantimirov, confrontation is stressful even for an adult: “You are sitting in front of a person who committed illegal acts against you, you are already scared, but you still have to give some evidence. ”

Moscow psychologist Anna Solovieva says that in her practice there were cases when a child experienced strong fear, shame, and cried: "If the investigator is sensitive, he will understand this and will not allow pressure on the child by the suspect and his lawyers."

Arina, on the other hand, had to repeat everything that she had told during the interrogation, in the presence of the accused and their lawyers, unfamiliar men - and so twice. The driver of the National Guard T. had two defenders at once - one of them was so negative, recalls Irina Petrova, as if they brought the criminal and all the time, according to the woman, broke into a cry: “Get away from the girl! What are you whispering to her! you're touching her!"

"Cross-examined. One asked questions at such a speed that not every adult will have time to switch. "You didn't have a light on in your room. Why didn't it burn?" How should she answer this question? - the psychologist Evgenia Vasilyeva is perplexed.

The lawyer and psychologists asked the investigator to conduct interrogations and face-to-face confrontations in a special room - according to the new Criminal Procedure Code, such rooms were designed specifically for investigative actions with child victims of violence. These are small rooms with bright walls, upholstered furniture and toys, where in the middle of one of the walls there is a large one-sided glass, through which you can observe without hanging over the child, and a video camera. “You can lie down, you can sit on the carpet, get distracted by a book and a toy, even for ten minutes, but go to the game room. And you are sitting at the investigator, there is an office two by two meters, cabinets, tables, there are four of us, investigator it constantly comes back and forth, "explains Evgenia.

There are four such special rooms in Moscow, for example, in the Crisis Center for Women and Children. There are two in Tatarstan: one in the Center for Assistance to Family Settlement, equipped less than a year ago, the second in the third department for the investigation of particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan, opened in 2015. At the same time, both Moscow and Kazan psychologists say that these rooms are almost never used: investigators do not want to go there.

In the case of Arina, the investigator agreed to conduct only a face-to-face confrontation with suspect M. In the case of T., the psychologists had to improvise: Arina was seated in the investigator’s office not facing the suspect, but sideways, and covered her with a shawl to create a barrier between the girl and a man.

"I usually hold her hands, and when her pupils dilate, her palms start to sweat, her breathing changes, I fix it all and stop the interrogation: "That's it, we're done, otherwise there will be a tantrum," the psychologist explains. "But still she cried then. It's still tension."

Attorney Rinat Kantimirov, first of all, after joining the case, refused further confrontations. "A face-to-face confrontation is stress, and here a twelve-year-old child is sitting and opposite her is an adult forty-year-old man, looking at you eye to eye. In any case, you will get lost, in any case you will have a tantrum. Moral, psychological pressure is very strong, no wonder that the child then had health problems."

"Let's rape her right here?"

Parallel to the interrogations and face-to-face confrontations, Arina was waiting for a gynecological examination: “There, too, they examined us for a very long time.

A medical examination (which Arina still had to undergo, despite the fact that two years had passed since the alleged crime) showed that the hymen was not damaged. The gynecologist separately noted in the conclusion that the absence of injuries now does not mean the absence of violence in the past.

Research confirms this. In 2004, a study was conducted on pregnant teenagers, including those who became pregnant as a result of violence, only two of 36 found genital changes. In 2019, a study of 2,384 children with a history of sexual abuse found that only 4% had any changes on examination.

After a gynecological examination, having heard a lot of talk about the hymen, Arina asked her foster mother: "Is it true that when you lose your virginity, you lose your childhood?" - and was very happy to learn that this did not happen.

Arina was also taken to the scene of alleged crimes. The girl had to be shown and told where the furniture was at that moment and what the situation looked like. “And here we are in these apartments in winter, it’s hot in clothes, but she didn’t even take off her mittens, she closed herself,” says Evgenia. “Arin, take off your mittens, it’s hot,” “No, no, I’m fine.” these mittens without touching anything."

Psychologists managed to fend off yet another potentially traumatic investigative experiment. “The proposal was this - Arina had to choose: either it was necessary to make a doll the size of a child, and then she would show on it what he did with her. Or a doll the size of M., so that she would show on herself. I say: “Yeah, let’s just rape her all right here?” If we lose something like that in reality, then for the brain, for the psyche, this is a repetition of all these events, ”says Evgenia Vasilyeva.

Five investigators and four criminal cases

“Initially, during the first interrogation, the girl spoke about four facts, named four persons. the authorities are obliged to verify the information and make a decision. And we ended up with two cases being initiated at first, and then additional episodes were initiated six months later."

Due to the fact that criminal cases were initiated gradually, the number of necessary investigative actions was automatically multiplied by four. By law, victims must undergo a psychological and psychiatric examination. In the case of minors, it is needed in order to determine the degree of intellectual and psychological development of the child: whether they are age-appropriate, whether the child is able to correctly assess what is happening to him, whether he is prone to fantasizing, lying, and how suggestible. An examination is always carried out by people who are independent and not familiar with the child, and it begins with clarifying with the child what exactly happened to him.

The experts noted that Arina is able to adequately assess what is happening to her and testify, and they did not find any reason not to trust the girl’s testimony: “there is no tendency to fantasize, pseudology is not detected”, “knows the words “sex” and “molestation” and distinguishes them according to the content on the example of suitable situations". However, Arina had to undergo examinations five times, all with new and new specialists. “Since all the cases are going separately, she passes the examination for each separately,” says Irina Petrova. “It turns out that at first the examination passed one by one, then we were asked to go through it again, we came again. Then we went a third time. Fourth, fifth. And It turns out that the child returns to this story every time.

“She understands the situation of a second examination as a test of “do I lie”, “behaves tired, satiated, dissatisfied with unnecessary tests of her abilities”, “stops answering for a long time, slows down, asks again,” experts wrote in the following examinations.

Lawyer Rinat Kantimirov explains that if all the cases were initiated in parallel, it would be possible to make several decisions on the appointment of examinations, talk to the child about all the episodes in one go, and simply make five separate conclusions.0003

The UK Guidelines clarify: "If multiple interviews are required, it is preferable that they be conducted by the same person to achieve a holistic approach and in the best interest of the child."

In Arina's case, five investigators changed - sometimes they just alternated with each other.

Since there were changes in the cases during this time, everyone had to study the materials again. This affected the speed of the investigation of cases - according to the parents and the lawyer, for several months practically nothing moved. The girl, on the other hand, had to discuss the details each time with a new investigator - in other words, with an unfamiliar man (only once the investigator was a woman).

During one of the interrogations, it was not clear to the investigator whether one of the men had an erect penis or not. He asked psychologists to ask her this question. "I took a pencil:" See? Did your uncle have a pussy like this or like this?" She says: "Like this," Yevgenia recounts. "Investigator: "What size was it?" I took a knife for cutting paper: "Arin, let me pull it out now, and you tell me." I pull it out, she says "a little shorter, a little longer", then we measured it with a ruler. I almost went crazy myself, I myself had the feeling that I had raped a child. "

In July, during one of the additional interrogations, the investigator asked Arina: "Have you ever spied on men washing?" and "Has money ever been stolen from my aunt"?

After the interrogations, Arina had to re-read her testimony and sign each page. With a pencil, she corrected the grammatical errors of investigators and placed commas.

In May, Irina Petrova turned to Guzel Udachina, Commissioner for Children's Rights in Tatarstan, with a request to take the case under control, later she went to an appointment with the head of the third department for the investigation of especially important cases of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee for Tatarstan with a request to take back materials from the investigation department for the Volga region Kazan region. These actions had no effect.

"You Won't Wish Your Enemy"

Shortly after the beginning of the investigation, Arina's grades at school dropped and her health began to deteriorate. “At first she began to hear badly, then to see. Before that, we had a medical examination, even when I took her from the shelter, everything was fine with her,” explains Irina Petrova. “We started again. We got there, thinking maybe something congenital was not detected. And there we were told that it was due to nerves. Extraneous doctors who do not know about our situation."

In June 2019, when the family was going on vacation, they received a call and were told that they needed to repeat the investigative experiment with going to the crime scene. “Well, it’s necessary, it’s necessary,” Irina Petrova recalls her reaction.

But on the eve of the departure, Arina fainted. “I was really scared. I thought: that’s it, she died, it was so scary,” the woman says. The girl was diagnosed with mental exhaustion and was admitted to the hospital in the neurological department.

Psychologist Yevgeny Vasilyeva was not surprised by this: two weeks before the fainting, specialists conducted tests and sent a conclusion to the IC that the child was on the verge of nervous exhaustion.

Psychologists are waiting for Arina to finish all investigative actions in order to start rehabilitation. This is impossible while the girl is again immersed in memories during interrogations and examinations: “Now, for example, they are angry with her that she began to forget some details, but she really forgot some things. She has the right to forget. time to remember it? Moreover, she lives in good conditions, where she is finally taken care of for the first time, and she has something that she didn’t have before. But every time she is immersed in it all again, ”says Vasilyeva, explaining that as Emotions and feelings are dulled and repressed by repeated repetitions - one does not want to experience them. - And from the side it may seem that she is calmly talking like this, “But didn’t she come up with this?”

"Relatively recently, there was the last interrogation on one of the episodes, which they are now going to send to court - it was very difficult. It can be seen that the girl begins to withdraw into herself, it's just that we pull every word out of her, as if with tongs," she, in turn, says advocate.

The case of one of the men, M., was submitted to the court. According to the Rosvardia employee, T., the prosecutor's office of Tatarstan returned the indictment to the investigation. Lawyer Rinat Kantimirov is now appealing this in Moscow. Two more criminal cases were opened in the summer. One of the men confessed at the first interrogation, later retracting it; now he is in jail. Another suspect has since received a prison sentence for attempted murder. At some point, he should be transferred from the colony to Kazan for investigative actions.

"I'm very tired, this story has driven me. And it scares me that this story has no end," says Irina Petrova. "We have customs, family traditions. And they just pulled us over. It's already so depressing, and most importantly, nobody needs anything. As a person, as a guardian, I'm very tired, I can't even see these investigators anymore."

According to the head of the regional public organization of foster families in Tatarstan, Svetlana Elakova, such situations put specialists in a strange position.

The number of crimes against the sexual integrity of minors in Russia is constantly growing - most recently, in October 2019, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that over the past five years it has almost doubled, by 42%. The official clarified that every sixth such crime is committed in the family, and every twelfth - by parents, and pointed to the need for "drastic measures".

It is obvious that sexual violence, argues Elakova, should be suppressed, punished.